SF Admin 61 Lin

Symantec Storage
Foundation 6.1
Administrator's Guide - Linux
May 2014
Symantec Storage Foundation 6.1 Administrator's

Guide
The software described in this book is furnished under a license agreement and may be used
only in accordance with the terms of the agreement.
Product version: 6.1
Document version: 6.1 Rev 4
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http://www.symantec.com/connect/storage-management
Contents
Technical Support ............................................................................................... 4
Section 1
Introducing Storage Foundation ........................ 25
Chapter 1
Overview of Storage Foundation ...................................... 26

About Symantec Storage Foundation ...............................................
About Symantec Dynamic Multi-Pathing (DMP) ..................................
About Veritas Volume Manager .......................................................
About Veritas File System ..............................................................
About the Veritas File System intent log ......................................
About extents ........................................................................
About file system disk layouts ...................................................
About Veritas Operations Manager ...................................................
About Veritas Replicator ................................................................
What is VFR? ........................................................................
Features of VFR .....................................................................
Use cases for Storage Foundation ...................................................
Chapter 2
How Symantec Dynamic Multi-Pathing works .............. 34

How DMP works ..........................................................................
Device discovery ....................................................................
How DMP monitors I/O on paths ................................................
Load balancing ......................................................................
DMP in a clustered environment ................................................
Veritas Volume Manager co-existence with Oracle Automatic Storage
Management disks .................................................................
Chapter 3
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How Veritas Volume Manager works .............................. 47

How Veritas Volume Manager works with the operating system ..............
How data is stored ..................................................................
How Veritas Volume Manager handles storage management ................
Physical objects .....................................................................
Virtual objects ........................................................................
About the configuration daemon in Veritas Volume Manager ...........
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Contents
Multiple paths to disk arrays .....................................................

Volume layouts in Veritas Volume Manager ........................................
Non-layered volumes ..............................................................
Layered volumes ....................................................................
Layout methods .....................................................................
Concatenation, spanning, and carving ........................................
Striping (RAID-0) ....................................................................
Mirroring (RAID-1) ..................................................................
Striping plus mirroring (mirrored-stripe or RAID-0+1) .....................
Mirroring plus striping (striped-mirror, RAID-1+0, or
RAID-10) ........................................................................
RAID-5 (striping with parity) ......................................................
Online relayout ............................................................................
How online relayout works ........................................................
Limitations of online relayout .....................................................
Transformation characteristics ..................................................
Transformations and volume length ............................................
Volume resynchronization ..............................................................
Dirty flags .............................................................................
Resynchronization process ......................................................
Hot-relocation ..............................................................................
Dirty region logging .......................................................................
Log subdisks and plexes ..........................................................
Sequential DRL ......................................................................
SmartSync recovery accelerator ................................................
Volume snapshots ........................................................................
Comparison of snapshot features ..............................................
FastResync .................................................................................
How FastResync works ...........................................................
How non-persistent FastResync works with snapshots ...................
How persistent FastResync works with snapshots .........................
DCO volume versioning ..........................................................
Effect of growing a volume on the FastResync map .......................
FastResync limitations .............................................................
Volume sets ................................................................................
How VxVM handles hardware clones or snapshots ..............................
How VxVM uses the unique disk identifier (UDID) .........................
Chapter 4
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How Veritas File System works ........................................ 96

Veritas File System features ........................................................... 96
Veritas File System performance enhancements ............................... 105
Enhanced I/O performance ..................................................... 106
Contents
Delayed allocation for extending writes ......................................

Using Veritas File System .............................................................
Online system administration ..................................................
Application program interface ..................................................
107
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109
Section 2
Provisioning storage ................................................ 111
Chapter 5
Provisioning new storage ................................................. 112

Provisioning new storage .............................................................
Growing the existing storage by adding a new LUN ...........................
Growing the existing storage by growing the LUN ..............................
Displaying SF information with vxlist ..............................................
Chapter 6
Advanced allocation methods for configuring

storage ........................................................................... 115
Customizing allocation behavior ....................................................
Setting default values for vxassist ............................................
Using rules to make volume allocation more efficient ....................
Understanding persistent attributes ..........................................
Customizing disk classes for allocation ......................................
Specifying allocation constraints for vxassist operations with the
use clause and the require clause ......................................
Management of the use and require type of persistent attributes
...................................................................................
Creating volumes of a specific layout ..............................................
Types of volume layouts .........................................................
Creating a mirrored volume .....................................................
Creating a striped volume .......................................................
Creating a RAID-5 volume ......................................................
Creating a volume on specific disks ................................................
Creating volumes on specific media types ........................................
Specifying ordered allocation of storage to volumes ...........................
Site-based allocation ...................................................................
Changing the read policy for mirrored volumes .................................
Chapter 7
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Creating and mounting VxFS file systems ................... 153

Creating a VxFS file system ..........................................................
File system block size ............................................................
Intent log size ......................................................................
Converting a file system to VxFS ...................................................
Mounting a VxFS file system .........................................................
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Contents
log mount option ...................................................................

delaylog mount option ...........................................................
tmplog mount option ..............................................................
logiosize mount option ...........................................................
nodatainlog mount option .......................................................
blkclear mount option ............................................................
mincache mount option ..........................................................
convosync mount option ........................................................
ioerror mount option ..............................................................
largefiles and nolargefiles mount options ...................................
cio mount option ...................................................................
mntlock mount option ............................................................
ckptautomnt mount option ......................................................
Combining mount command options ........................................
Unmounting a file system .............................................................
Resizing a file system ..................................................................
Extending a file system using fsadm .........................................
Shrinking a file system ...........................................................
Reorganizing a file system ......................................................
Displaying information on mounted file systems ................................
Identifying file system types ..........................................................
Monitoring free space ..................................................................
Monitoring fragmentation ........................................................
Chapter 8
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Extent attributes ................................................................ 177

About extent attributes .................................................................
Reservation: preallocating space to a file ...................................
Fixed extent size ..................................................................
How the fixed extent size works with the shared extents ...............
Other extent attribute controls .................................................
Commands related to extent attributes ...........................................
About failing to preserve extent attributes ..................................
177
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Section 3
Administering multi-pathing with

DMP .............................................................................. 184
Chapter 9
Administering Dynamic Multi-Pathing ......................... 185

Discovering and configuring newly added disk devices .......................
Partial device discovery .........................................................
About discovering disks and dynamically adding disk arrays ..........
About third-party driver coexistence ..........................................
185
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10
Contents
How to administer the Device Discovery Layer ............................

Making devices invisible to VxVM ...................................................
Making devices visible to VxVM .....................................................
About enabling and disabling I/O for controllers and storage
processors ..........................................................................
About displaying DMP database information .....................................
Displaying the paths to a disk ........................................................
Administering DMP using the vxdmpadm utility .................................
Retrieving information about a DMP node ..................................
Displaying consolidated information about the DMP nodes ............
Displaying the members of a LUN group ....................................
Displaying paths controlled by a DMP node, controller, enclosure,
or array port ...................................................................
Displaying information about controllers ....................................
Displaying information about enclosures ....................................
Displaying information about array ports ....................................
Displaying information about devices controlled by third-party
drivers ..........................................................................
Displaying extended device attributes .......................................
Suppressing or including devices from VxVM control ....................
Gathering and displaying I/O statistics .......................................
Setting the attributes of the paths to an enclosure ........................
Displaying the redundancy level of a device or enclosure ..............
Specifying the minimum number of active paths ..........................
Displaying the I/O policy .........................................................
Specifying the I/O policy .........................................................
Disabling I/O for paths, controllers, array ports, or DMP
nodes ...........................................................................
Enabling I/O for paths, controllers, array ports, or DMP
nodes ...........................................................................
Renaming an enclosure .........................................................
Configuring the response to I/O failures .....................................
Configuring the I/O throttling mechanism ...................................
Configuring Low Impact Path Probing (LIPP) ..............................
Configuring Subpaths Failover Groups (SFG) .............................
Displaying recovery option values ............................................
Configuring DMP path restoration policies ..................................
Stopping the DMP path restoration thread ..................................
Displaying the status of the DMP path restoration thread ..............
Configuring Array Policy Modules .............................................
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Contents
Chapter 10
Dynamic Reconfiguration of devices
............................ 251
About online Dynamic Reconfiguration ...........................................

Reconfiguring a LUN online that is under DMP control ........................
Removing LUNs dynamically from an existing target ID ................
Adding new LUNs dynamically to a new target ID ........................
Replacing LUNs dynamically from an existing target ID ................
Dynamic LUN expansion ........................................................
Changing the characteristics of a LUN from the array side .............
Replacing a host bus adapter online ...............................................
Upgrading the array controller firmware online ..................................
Chapter 11
Managing devices .............................................................. 261

Displaying disk information ...........................................................
Displaying disk information with vxdiskadm ................................
Changing the disk device naming scheme .......................................
Displaying the disk-naming scheme ..........................................
Setting customized names for DMP nodes .................................
Regenerating persistent device names ......................................
Changing device naming for enclosures controlled by third-party
drivers ..........................................................................
About the Array Volume Identifier (AVID) attribute ........................
About disk installation and formatting ..............................................
Adding and removing disks ...........................................................
Adding a disk to VxVM ...........................................................
Removing disks ....................................................................
Renaming a disk ........................................................................
Chapter 12
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Event monitoring ............................................................... 285

About the Dynamic Multi-Pathing (DMP) event source daemon
(vxesd) ...............................................................................
Fabric Monitoring and proactive error detection .................................
Dynamic Multi-Pathing (DMP) discovery of iSCSI and SAN Fibre
Channel topology .................................................................
DMP event logging ......................................................................
Starting and stopping the Dynamic Multi-Pathing (DMP) event source
daemon ..............................................................................
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Contents
Section 4
Optimizing I/O performance ............................... 289
Chapter 13
Veritas File System I/O ..................................................... 290

About Veritas File System I/O ........................................................
Buffered and Direct I/O ................................................................
Direct I/O ............................................................................
Unbuffered I/O .....................................................................
Data synchronous I/O ............................................................
Concurrent I/O ...........................................................................
Cache advisories ........................................................................
Freezing and thawing a file system .................................................
Getting the I/O size ....................................................................
About Storage Foundation and High Availability Solutions products
database accelerators ...........................................................
Chapter 14
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Veritas Volume Manager I/O ........................................... 297

Veritas Volume Manager throttling of administrative I/O ...................... 297
Section 5
Using Point-in-time copies ................................... 299
Chapter 15
Understanding point-in-time copy methods ............... 300

About point-in-time copies ............................................................
When to use point-in-time copies ...................................................
Implementing point-in time copy solutions on a primary host ..........
Implementing off-host point-in-time copy solutions .......................
About Storage Foundation point-in-time copy technologies ..................
Comparison of Point-in-time copy solutions ................................
Volume-level snapshots ...............................................................
Persistent FastResync of volume snapshots ...............................
Data integrity in volume snapshots ...........................................
Third-mirror break-off snapshots ..............................................
Space-optimized instant volume snapshots ................................
Choices for snapshot resynchronization ....................................
Disk group split/join ...............................................................
Storage Checkpoints ...................................................................
How Storage Checkpoints differ from snapshots .........................
How a Storage Checkpoint works .............................................
Types of Storage Checkpoints .................................................
About FileSnaps .........................................................................
Properties of FileSnaps ..........................................................
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Contents
Concurrent I/O to FileSnaps ....................................................

Copy-on-write and FileSnaps ..................................................
Reading from FileSnaps .........................................................
Block map fragmentation and FileSnaps ....................................
Backup and FileSnaps ...........................................................
About snapshot file systems ..........................................................
How a snapshot file system works ............................................
Chapter 16
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Administering volume snapshots .................................. 329

About volume snapshots ..............................................................
How traditional third-mirror break-off snapshots work .........................
How full-sized instant snapshots work .............................................
Linked break-off snapshot volumes ................................................
Cascaded snapshots ...................................................................
Creating a snapshot of a snapshot ...........................................
Creating multiple snapshots ..........................................................
Restoring the original volume from a snapshot ..................................
Creating instant snapshots ...........................................................
Adding an instant snap DCO and DCO volume ...........................
Creating and managing space-optimized instant snapshots ...........
Creating and managing full-sized instant snapshots .....................
Creating and managing third-mirror break-off snapshots ...............
Creating and managing linked break-off snapshot volumes ...........
Creating multiple instant snapshots ..........................................
Creating instant snapshots of volume sets .................................
Adding snapshot mirrors to a volume ........................................
Removing a snapshot mirror ...................................................
Removing a linked break-off snapshot volume ............................
Adding a snapshot to a cascaded snapshot hierarchy ..................
Refreshing an instant space-optimized snapshot .........................
Reattaching an instant full-sized or plex break-off snapshot ...........
Reattaching a linked break-off snapshot volume ..........................
Restoring a volume from an instant space-optimized
snapshot .......................................................................
Dissociating an instant snapshot ..............................................
Removing an instant snapshot ................................................
Splitting an instant snapshot hierarchy ......................................
Displaying instant snapshot information .....................................
Controlling instant snapshot synchronization ..............................
Listing the snapshots created on a cache ..................................
Tuning the autogrow attributes of a cache ..................................
Monitoring and displaying cache usage .....................................
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Contents
Growing and shrinking a cache ................................................

Removing a cache ................................................................
Creating traditional third-mirror break-off snapshots ...........................
Converting a plex into a snapshot plex ......................................
Creating multiple snapshots with the vxassist command ...............
Reattaching a snapshot volume ...............................................
Adding plexes to a snapshot volume .........................................
Dissociating a snapshot volume ...............................................
Displaying snapshot information ..............................................
Adding a version 0 DCO and DCO volume .......................................
Specifying storage for version 0 DCO plexes ..............................
Removing a version 0 DCO and DCO volume .............................
Reattaching a version 0 DCO and DCO volume ..........................
Chapter 17
Administering Storage Checkpoints .............................. 385

About Storage Checkpoints ..........................................................
Storage Checkpoint administration .................................................
Creating a Storage Checkpoint ................................................
Removing a Storage Checkpoint ..............................................
Accessing a Storage Checkpoint ..............................................
Converting a data Storage Checkpoint to a nodata Storage
Checkpoint ....................................................................
Enabling and disabling Storage Checkpoint visibility ....................
Storage Checkpoint space management considerations .....................
Restoring from a Storage Checkpoint ..............................................
Storage Checkpoint quotas ...........................................................
Chapter 18
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Administering FileSnaps .................................................. 406

FileSnap creation ........................................................................
FileSnap creation over Network File System ...............................
Using FileSnaps .........................................................................
Using FileSnaps to create point-in-time copies of files ........................
Using FileSnaps to provision virtual desktops .............................
Using FileSnaps to optimize write intensive applications for virtual
machines ......................................................................
Using FileSnaps to create multiple copies of data instantly ............
An example to perform FileSnap .............................................
Comparison of the logical size output of the fsadm -S shared, du, and
df commands .......................................................................
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Contents
Chapter 19
Administering snapshot file systems ............................ 412

Snapshot file system backups .......................................................
Snapshot file system performance ..................................................
About snapshot file system disk structure ........................................
Differences between snapshots and Storage Checkpoints ...................
Creating a snapshot file system .....................................................
412
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Section 6
Optimizing storage with Storage

Foundation ............................................................... 417
Chapter 20
Understanding storage optimization solutions in

Storage Foundation .................................................... 418
About thin provisioning .................................................................
About thin optimization solutions in Storage Foundation .....................
About SmartMove .......................................................................
SmartMove for thin provisioning ...............................................
About the Thin Reclamation feature ................................................
About reclaiming space on Solid State Devices (SSDs) with the TRIM
operation ............................................................................
Determining when to reclaim space on a thin reclamation LUN .............
How automatic reclamation works ..................................................
Chapter 21
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Migrating data from thick storage to thin

storage ........................................................................... 425
About using SmartMove to migrate to Thin Storage ........................... 425
Migrating to thin provisioning ......................................................... 425
Chapter 22
Maintaining Thin Storage with Thin

Reclamation .................................................................. 429
Reclamation of storage on thin reclamation arrays .............................
About Thin Reclamation of a disk, a disk group, or an
enclosure ......................................................................
About Thin Reclamation of a file system ....................................
Identifying thin and thin reclamation LUNs .......................................
Displaying detailed information about reclamation
commands ....................................................................
Displaying VxFS file system usage on thin reclamation LUNs ..............
Reclaiming space on a file system ..................................................
Reclaiming space on a disk, disk group, or enclosure .........................
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About the reclamation log file ........................................................ 440

Monitoring Thin Reclamation using the vxtask command .................... 441
Configuring automatic reclamation ................................................. 442
Section 7
Maximizing storage utilization .......................... 444
Chapter 23
Understanding storage tiering with SmartTier ........... 445

About SmartTier .........................................................................
About VxFS multi-volume file systems .......................................
About VxVM volume sets .......................................................
About volume tags ................................................................
SmartTier file management .....................................................
SmartTier sub-file object management ......................................
How the SmartTier policy works with the shared extents .....................
SmartTier in a High Availability (HA) environment ..............................
Chapter 24
Creating and administering volume sets ..................... 451

About volume sets ......................................................................
Creating a volume set ..................................................................
Adding a volume to a volume set ...................................................
Removing a volume from a volume set ............................................
Listing details of volume sets .........................................................
Stopping and starting volume sets ..................................................
Managing raw device nodes of component volumes ..........................
Enabling raw device access when creating a volume set ...............
Displaying the raw device access settings for a volume set ...........
Controlling raw device access for an existing volume set ..............
Chapter 25
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Multi-volume file systems ................................................ 459

About multi-volume file systems .....................................................
About volume types .....................................................................
Features implemented using multi-volume support ............................
Volume availability ................................................................
Creating multi-volume file systems .................................................
Converting a single volume file system to a multi-volume file
system ...............................................................................
Adding a volume to and removing a volume from a multi-volume file
system ...............................................................................
Adding a volume to a multi-volume file system ............................
Removing a volume from a multi-volume file system ....................
Forcibly removing a volume in a multi-volume file system ..............
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Moving volume 0 in a multi-volume file system ............................

Volume encapsulation .................................................................
Encapsulating a volume .........................................................
Deencapsulating a volume .....................................................
Reporting file extents ...................................................................
Load balancing ..........................................................................
Defining and assigning a load balancing allocation policy ..............
Rebalancing extents ..............................................................
Converting a multi-volume file system to a single volume file
system ...............................................................................
Chapter 26
Administering SmartTier
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466
468
468
470
470
471
471
................................................. 474
About SmartTier .........................................................................

About compressing files with SmartTier .....................................
Supported SmartTier document type definitions ................................
Placement classes ......................................................................
Tagging volumes as placement classes .....................................
Listing placement classes .......................................................
Administering placement policies ...................................................
Assigning a placement policy ..................................................
Unassigning a placement policy ...............................................
Analyzing the space impact of enforcing a placement policy ..........
Querying which files will be affected by enforcing a placement
policy ...........................................................................
Enforcing a placement policy ...................................................
Validating a placement policy ..................................................
File placement policy grammar ......................................................
File placement policy rules ............................................................
SELECT statement ...............................................................
CREATE statement ...............................................................
RELOCATE statement ...........................................................
DELETE statement ...............................................................
COMPRESS statement ..........................................................
UNCOMPRESS statement .....................................................
Calculating I/O temperature and access temperature .........................
Multiple criteria in file placement policy rule statements ......................
Multiple file selection criteria in SELECT statement clauses ...........
Multiple placement classes in <ON> clauses of CREATE
statements and in <TO> clauses of RELOCATE statements
...................................................................................
Multiple placement classes in <FROM> clauses of RELOCATE
and DELETE statements .................................................
474
476
476
477
478
478
479
479
480
480
480
480
482
482
483
483
486
488
503
505
515
524
528
529
530
531
18
Contents
Multiple conditions in <WHEN> clauses of RELOCATE and

DELETE statements .......................................................
File placement policy rule and statement ordering .............................
File placement policies and extending files .......................................
Using SmartTier with solid state disks .............................................
Fine grain temperatures with solid state disks .............................
Prefer mechanism with solid state disks ....................................
Average I/O activity with solid state disks ...................................
Frequent SmartTier scans with solid state disks ..........................
Quick identification of cold files with solid state disks ....................
Example placement policy when using solid state disks ................
Sub-file relocation .......................................................................
Moving sub-file data of files to specific target tiers .......................
Chapter 27
Administering hot-relocation .......................................... 543

About hot-relocation ....................................................................
How hot-relocation works .............................................................
Partial disk failure mail messages ............................................
Complete disk failure mail messages ........................................
How space is chosen for relocation ..........................................
Configuring a system for hot-relocation ...........................................
Displaying spare disk information ...................................................
Marking a disk as a hot-relocation spare ..........................................
Removing a disk from use as a hot-relocation spare ..........................
Excluding a disk from hot-relocation use ..........................................
Making a disk available for hot-relocation use ...................................
Configuring hot-relocation to use only spare disks .............................
Moving relocated subdisks ...........................................................
Moving relocated subdisks using vxunreloc ................................
Restarting vxunreloc after errors ..............................................
Modifying the behavior of hot-relocation ..........................................
Chapter 28
531
531
534
534
535
535
536
536
537
538
542
542
543
544
547
548
549
550
550
551
552
553
554
554
555
555
558
558
Deduplicating data ............................................................ 560

About deduplicating data ..............................................................
About deduplication chunk size ...............................................
Deduplication and file system performance ................................
About the deduplication scheduler ............................................
Deduplicating data ......................................................................
Enabling and disabling deduplication on a file system ..................
Scheduling deduplication of a file system ...................................
Performing a deduplication dry run ...........................................
Querying the deduplication status of a file system ........................
560
561
562
562
563
566
566
568
568
19
Contents
Starting and stopping the deduplication scheduler daemon ...........

Deduplication results ...................................................................
Deduplication supportability ..........................................................
Deduplication use cases ..............................................................
Deduplication limitations ...............................................................
Chapter 29
568
569
569
569
570
Compressing files .............................................................. 572

About compressing files ...............................................................
About the compressed file format .............................................
About the file compression attributes ........................................
About the file compression block size ........................................
Compressing files with the vxcompress command .............................
Interaction of compressed files and other commands .........................
Interaction of compressed files and other features .............................
Interaction of compressed files and applications ................................
Use cases for compressing files .....................................................
Compressed files and databases .............................................
Compressing all files that meet the specified criteria ....................
572
573
573
574
574
576
577
578
579
579
583
Section 8
Administering storage ............................................ 584
Chapter 30
Managing volumes and disk groups .............................. 585

Rules for determining the default disk group .....................................
Displaying the system-wide boot disk group ...............................
Displaying and specifying the system-wide default disk
group ...........................................................................
Moving volumes or disks ..............................................................
Moving volumes from a VxVM disk ...........................................
Moving disks between disk groups ...........................................
Reorganizing the contents of disk groups ...................................
Monitoring and controlling tasks .....................................................
Specifying task tags ..............................................................
Managing tasks with vxtask ....................................................
Using vxnotify to monitor configuration changes ................................
Performing online relayout ............................................................
Permitted relayout transformations ...........................................
Specifying a non-default layout ................................................
Specifying a plex for relayout ..................................................
Tagging a relayout operation ...................................................
Viewing the status of a relayout ...............................................
Controlling the progress of a relayout ........................................
585
586
586
587
587
588
589
602
602
603
605
606
607
609
610
610
611
611
20
Contents
Adding a mirror to a volume .........................................................

Mirroring all volumes ............................................................
Mirroring volumes on a VxVM disk ...........................................
Configuring SmartMove ...............................................................
Removing a mirror .....................................................................
Setting tags on volumes ...............................................................
Managing disk groups .................................................................
Disk group versions ...............................................................
Displaying disk group information .............................................
Creating a disk group ............................................................
Removing a disk from a disk group ...........................................
Deporting a disk group ...........................................................
Importing a disk group ...........................................................
Handling of minor number conflicts ...........................................
Moving disk groups between systems .......................................
Importing a disk group containing hardware cloned disks .............
Setting up configuration database copies (metadata) for a disk
group ...........................................................................
Renaming a disk group ..........................................................
Handling conflicting configuration copies ...................................
Disabling a disk group ...........................................................
Destroying a disk group .........................................................
Backing up and restoring disk group configuration data ................
Working with existing ISP disk groups .......................................
Managing plexes and subdisks ......................................................
Reattaching plexes ...............................................................
Plex synchronization .............................................................
Decommissioning storage ............................................................
Removing a volume ..............................................................
Removing a disk from VxVM control .........................................
About shredding data ............................................................
Shredding a VxVM disk .........................................................
Failed disk shred operation results in a disk with no label ..............
Removing and replacing disks .................................................
Chapter 31
612
613
613
614
615
616
617
617
623
625
626
627
628
630
631
637
643
644
646
653
653
654
656
658
658
661
662
662
663
663
664
667
667
Rootability ........................................................................... 673

Encapsulating a disk ...................................................................
Failure of disk encapsulation ...................................................
Using nopriv disks for encapsulation .........................................
Rootability .................................................................................
Restrictions on using rootability with Linux .................................
Sample supported root disk layouts for encapsulation ..................
673
677
678
679
680
682
21
Contents
Booting root volumes .............................................................

Boot-time volume restrictions ..................................................
Creating redundancy for the root disk .......................................
Creating an archived back-up root disk for disaster recovery ..........
Encapsulating and mirroring the root disk ..................................
Upgrading the kernel on a root encapsulated system ...................
Administering an encapsulated boot disk .........................................
Creating a snapshot of an encapsulated boot disk .......................
Unencapsulating the root disk .......................................................
Chapter 32
Quotas .................................................................................. 701

About Veritas File System quota limits .............................................
About quota files on Veritas File System ..........................................
About Veritas File System quota commands .....................................
About quota checking with Veritas File System .................................
Using Veritas File System quotas ...................................................
Turning on Veritas File System quotas ......................................
Turning on Veritas File System quotas at mount time ...................
Editing Veritas File System quotas ...........................................
Modifying Veritas File System quota time limits ...........................
Viewing Veritas File System disk quotas and usage .....................
Displaying blocks owned by users or groups ..............................
Turning off Veritas File System quotas ......................................
Support for 64-bit Quotas .......................................................
Chapter 33
689
689
690
690
690
696
698
699
699
701
702
703
704
704
705
705
706
706
707
707
707
708
File Change Log .................................................................. 709

About Veritas File System File Change Log ......................................
About the Veritas File System File Change Log file ............................
Veritas File System File Change Log administrative interface ...............
Veritas File System File Change Log programmatic interface ...............
Summary of Veritas File System File Change Log API functions ...........
709
710
711
713
715
Section 9
Reference ........................................................................ 717
Appendix A
Reverse path name lookup .............................................. 718

About reverse path name lookup ................................................... 718
Appendix B
Tunable parameters .......................................................... 720

About tuning Symantec Storage Foundation ..................................... 720
Tuning the VxFS file system .......................................................... 720
22
Contents
Tuning inode table size .........................................................

Tuning performance optimization of inode allocation ....................
Tuning file system parallel direct I/O .........................................
Partitioned directories ............................................................
Veritas Volume Manager maximum I/O size ...............................
Native asynchronous I/O with cloned processes ..........................
DMP tunable parameters ..............................................................
Methods to change Symantec Dynamic Multi-Pathing tunable
parameters .........................................................................
Changing the values of DMP parameters with the vxdmpadm
settune command line ......................................................
About tuning Symantec Dynamic Multi-Pathing (DMP) with
templates ......................................................................
Tunable parameters for VxVM .......................................................
Tunable parameters for core VxVM ..........................................
Tunable parameters for FlashSnap (FMR) .................................
Tunable parameters for CVM ..................................................
Tunable parameters for VVR ...................................................
Points to note when changing the values of the VVR
tunables .......................................................................
Methods to change Veritas Volume Manager tunable parameters
.........................................................................................
Changing the values of the Veritas Volume Manager tunable
parameters using the vxtune command line ..........................
Changing the value of the Veritas Volume Manager tunable
parameters using templates ..............................................
Appendix C
731
731
731
739
739
746
751
752
753
754
755
757
Veritas File System disk layout ....................................... 759

About Veritas File System disk layouts ............................................
VxFS Version 7 disk layout ...........................................................
VxFS Version 10 disk layout ..........................................................
Appendix D
721
721
722
722
722
723
723
759
761
761
762
762
Command reference ......................................................... 763

Command completion for Veritas commands ....................................
Veritas Volume Manager command reference ...................................
Veritas Volume Manager manual pages ..........................................
Section 1M administrative commands ...................................
Section 4 file formats .........................................................
Veritas File System command summary ..........................................
Veritas File System manual pages ..................................................
763
765
785
785
789
789
792
23
Contents
Index ................................................................................................................... 798
24
Section
Introducing Storage
Foundation
Chapter 1. Overview of Storage Foundation
Chapter 2. How Symantec Dynamic Multi-Pathing works
Chapter 3. How Veritas Volume Manager works
Chapter 4. How Veritas File System works
Chapter
Overview of Storage
Foundation
This chapter includes the following topics:
About Symantec Storage Foundation
About Symantec Dynamic Multi-Pathing (DMP)
About Veritas Volume Manager
About Veritas File System
About Veritas Operations Manager
About Veritas Replicator
Use cases for Storage Foundation

Symantec Storage Foundation by Symantec (SF) is a storage management solution
to enable robust, manageable, and scalable storage deployment. SF maximizes
your storage efficiency, availability, agility, and performance across heterogeneous
server and storage platforms.
Symantec Storage Foundation consists of product components and features that
can be used individually and together to improve performance, resilience and ease
of management for your storage and applications.
Table 1-1 describes the components of Symantec Storage Foundation.
Overview of Storage Foundation

Table 1-1
Symantec Storage Foundation components
Component
Description
Dynamic Multi-Pathing
(DMP)
Manages the I/O performance and path availability of the physical

devices that are configured on the system.
DMP creates DMP metadevices for all of the paths to each LUN.
DMP uses the DMP metadevices to manage path failover and
load balancing across the paths to the physical devices.
DMP metadevices provide the foundation for Veritas Volume
Manager (VxVM) and Veritas File System (VxFS). DMP also
supports native operating system volumes and file systems on
DMP devices.
Veritas Volume Manager Provides a logical layer between your operating system devices
(VxVM)
and your applications.
VxVM enables you to create logical devices called volumes on
the physical disks and LUNs.The applications such as file systems
or databases access the volumes as if the volumes were physical
devices but without the physical limitations.
VxVM features enable you to configure, share, manage, and
optimize storage I/O performance online without interrupting data
availability. Additional VxVM features enhance fault tolerance and
fast recovery from disk failure or storage array failure.
Veritas File System
(VxFS)
Provides a high-performance journaling file system.

VxFS is designed for use in operating environments that deal with
large amounts of data and that require high performance and
continuous availability.
VxFS features provide quick-recovery for applications, scalable
performance, continuous availability, increased I/O throughput,
and increased structural integrity.
Symantec Replicator
(VR)
Enables you to maintain a consistent copy of application data at

one or more remote locations.
Symantec Replicator provides the flexibility of block-based
continuous replication with Volume Replicator (VVR) and file-based
periodic replication with File Replicator (VFR). Symantec Replicator
option is a separately-licensable feature of Symantec Storage
Foundation.
I/O fencing
Protects the data on shared disks when nodes in a cluster detect

a change in the network cluster membership with a potential split
brain condition.
27

A related product, Veritas Operations Manager, provides a centralized management

console that you can use with Symantec Storage Foundation and High Availability
products.
See About Veritas Operations Manager on page 31.

Symantec Dynamic Multi-Pathing (DMP) provides multi-pathing functionality for the
operating system native devices that are configured on the system. DMP creates
DMP metadevices (also known as DMP nodes) to represent all the device paths
to the same physical LUN.
DMP is available as a component of Symantec Storage Foundation. DMP supports
Veritas Volume Manager (VxVM) volumes on DMP metadevices, and Veritas File
System (VxFS) file systems on those volumes.
DMP is also available as a standalone product, which extends DMP metadevices
to support the OS native logical volume manager (LVM). You can create LVM
volumes and volume groups on DMP metadevices.
Symantec Dynamic Multi-Pathing can be licensed separately from Storage
Foundation products. Veritas Volume Manager and Veritas File System functionality
is not provided with a DMP license.
DMP functionality is available with a Storage Foundation (SF) Enterprise license,
an SFHA Enterprise license, and a Storage Foundation Standard license.
Veritas Volume Manager (VxVM) volumes and disk groups can co-exist with LVM
volumes and volume groups. But, each device can only support one of the types.
If a disk has a VxVM label, then the disk is not available to LVM. Similarly, if a disk
is in use by LVM, then the disk is not available to VxVM.
About Veritas Volume Manager

VeritasTM Volume Manager (VxVM) by Symantec is a storage management
subsystem that allows you to manage physical disks and logical unit numbers
(LUNs) as logical devices called volumes. A VxVM volume appears to applications
and the operating system as a physical device on which file systems, databases,
and other managed data objects can be configured.
VxVM provides easy-to-use online disk storage management for computing
environments and Storage Area Network (SAN) environments. By supporting the
Redundant Array of Independent Disks (RAID) model, VxVM can be configured to
protect against disk and hardware failure, and to increase I/O throughput.
28

Additionally, VxVM provides features that enhance fault tolerance and fast recovery
from disk failure or storage array failure.
VxVM overcomes restrictions imposed by hardware disk devices and by LUNs by
providing a logical volume management layer. This allows volumes to span multiple
disks and LUNs.
VxVM provides the tools to improve performance and ensure data availability and
integrity. You can also use VxVM to dynamically configure storage while the system
is active.

A file system is simply a method for storing and organizing computer files and the
data they contain to make it easy to find and access them. More formally, a file
system is a set of abstract data types (such as metadata) that are implemented for
the storage, hierarchical organization, manipulation, navigation, access, and retrieval
of data.
Veritas File System (VxFS) was the first commercial journaling file system. With
journaling, metadata changes are first written to a log (or journal) then to disk. Since
changes do not need to be written in multiple places, throughput is much faster as
the metadata is written asynchronously.
VxFS is also an extent-based, intent logging file system. VxFS is designed for use
in operating environments that require high performance and availability and deal
with large amounts of data.
VxFS major components include:
File system logging
About the Veritas File System intent log
Extents
About extents
File system disk layouts
About file system disk layouts
About the Veritas File System intent log

Most file systems rely on full structural verification by the fsck utility as the only
means to recover from a system failure. For large disk configurations, this involves
a time-consuming process of checking the entire structure, verifying that the file
system is intact, and correcting any inconsistencies. VxFS provides fast recovery
with the VxFS intent log and VxFS intent log resizing features.
VxFS reduces system failure recovery times by tracking file system activity in the
VxFS intent log. This feature records pending changes to the file system structure
29

in a circular intent log. The intent log recovery feature is not readily apparent to
users or a system administrator except during a system failure. By default, VxFS
file systems log file transactions before they are committed to disk, reducing time
spent recovering file systems after the system is halted unexpectedly.
During system failure recovery, the VxFS fsck utility performs an intent log replay,
which scans the intent log and nullifies or completes file system operations that
were active when the system failed. The file system can then be mounted without
requiring a full structural check of the entire file system. Replaying the intent log
might not completely recover the damaged file system structure if there was a disk
hardware failure; hardware problems might require a complete system check using
the fsck utility provided with VxFS.
The mount command automatically runs the VxFS fsck command to perform an
intent log replay if the mount command detects a dirty log in the file system. This
functionality is only supported on a file system mounted on a Veritas Volume
Manager (VxVM) volume, and is supported on cluster file systems.
See the fsck_vxfs(1M) manual page and mount_vxfs(1M) manual page.
The VxFS intent log is allocated when the file system is first created. The size of
the intent log is based on the size of the file systemthe larger the file system, the
larger the intent log. You can resize the intent log at a later time by using the fsadm
commnad.
See the fsadm_vxfs(1M) manual page.
The maximum default intent log size for disk layout Version 7 or later is 256
megabytes.
Note: Inappropriate sizing of the intent log can have a negative impact on system
performance.
See Intent log size on page 155.
About extents
An extent is a contiguous area of storage in a computer file system, reserved for a
file. When starting to write to a file, a whole extent is allocated. When writing to the
file again, the data continues where the previous write left off. This reduces or
eliminates file fragmentation. An extent is presented as an address-length pair,
which identifies the starting block address and the length of the extent (in file system
or logical blocks). Since Veritas File System (VxFS) is an extent-based file system,
addressing is done through extents (which can consist of multiple blocks) rather
than in single-block segments. Extents can therefore enhance file system throughput.
30

Extents allow disk I/O to take place in units of multiple blocks if storage is allocated
in contiguous blocks. For sequential I/O, multiple block operations are considerably
faster than block-at-a-time operations; almost all disk drives accept I/O operations
on multiple blocks.
Extent allocation only slightly alters the interpretation of addressed blocks from the
inode structure compared to block-based inodes. A VxFS inode references 10 direct
extents, each of which are pairs of starting block addresses and lengths in blocks.
Disk space is allocated in 512-byte sectors to form logical blocks. VxFS supports
logical block sizes of 1024, 2048, 4096, and 8192 bytes. The default block size is
1 KB for file system sizes of up to 1 TB, and 8 KB for file system sizes 1 TB or
larger.
About file system disk layouts

The disk layout is the way file system information is stored on disk. On Veritas File
System (VxFS), several disk layout versions, numbered 1 through 10, were created
to support various new features and specific UNIX environments.
Currently, only the Version 7, 8, 9, and 10 disk layouts can be created and mounted.
The Version 6 disk layout can be mounted, but only for upgrading to a supported
version. No other versions can be created or mounted.
See About Veritas File System disk layouts on page 759.

Veritas Operations Manager provides a centralized management console for
Symantec Storage Foundation and High Availability products. You can use Veritas
Operations Manager to monitor, visualize, and manage storage resources and
generate reports.
Symantec recommends using Veritas Operations Manager (VOM) to manage
Storage Foundation and Cluster Server environments.
You can download Veritas Operations Manager at no charge at
http://go.symantec.com/vom.
Refer to the Veritas Operations Manager documentation for installation, upgrade,
and configuration instructions.
The Veritas Enterprise Administrator (VEA) console is no longer packaged with
Storage Foundation products. If you want to continue using VEA, a software version
is available for download from
http://www.symantec.com/operations-manager/support. Symantec Storage
Foundation Management Server is deprecated.
31


Veritas Replicator provides organizations with a comprehensive solution for
heterogeneous data replication. As an option to Symantec Storage Foundation,
Veritas Replicator enables cost-effective replication of data over IP networks, giving
organizations an extremely flexible, storage hardware independent alternative to
traditional array-based replication architectures. Veritas Replicator provides the
flexibility of block-based continuous replication with Symantec Volume Replicator
Option (VVR) and file-based periodic replication with Symantec File Replicator
Option (VFR).
What is VFR?
Veritas File Replicator (VFR) enables cost-effective periodic replication of data over
IP networks, giving organizations an extremely flexible storage independent data
availability solution for disaster recovery and off-host processing. With flexibility of
scheduling the replication intervals to match the business requirements, Veritas
File Replicator tracks all updates to the file system and replicates these updates at
the end of the configured time interval. VFR leverages data deduplication provided
by Veritas File System (VxFS) to reduce the impact that replication can have on
scarce network resources. VFR is included, by default, with Symantec Virtual Store
6.0 on Linux and is available as an option with Symantec Storage Foundation and
associated products on Linux.
Features of VFR
Veritas File Replicator (VFR) includes the following features:
Supports periodic replication of a subset of a file system ranging from a single

file to an entire file system.
Supports reversible data transfer. The target of replication may become the
source at runtime, with the former source system becoming a target.
Provides efficiency of data transfer when transferring shared extents, so that

the data is not sent multiple times over the network.
Supports automatic recovery from the last good successfully replicated point in
time image.
Periodically replicates changes. The interval is configurable by the user.
Supports deduplication to increase storage efficiency on the target system.
Supports protection of the target file system from accidental writes.
32

See the Symantec Storage Foundation and High Availability Solutions Replication
Administrators Guide for more information.

Storage Foundation components and features can be used individually and together
to improve performance, resilience, and ease of management for your storage and
applications. Storage Foundation features can be used for:
Improving database performance: you can use Storage Foundation database

accelerators to improve I/O performance. SFHA Solutions database accelerators
achieve the speed of raw disk while retaining the management features and
convenience of a file system.
Optimizing thin array usage: you can use Storage Foundation thin provisioning
and thin reclamation solutions to set up and maintain thin storage.
Backing up and recovering data: you can use Storage Foundation Flashsnap,
Storage Checkpoints, and NetBackup point-in-time copy methods to back up
and recover your data.
Processing data off-host: you can avoid performance loss to your production
hosts by using Storage Foundation volume snapshots.
Optimizing test and development environments: you can optimize copies of your
production database for test, decision modeling, and development purposes
using Storage Foundation point-in-time copy methods.
Optimizing virtual desktop environments: you can use Storage Foundation

FileSnap to optimize your virtual desktop environment.
Maximizing storage utilization: you can use Storage Foundation SmartTier to

move data to storage tiers based on age, priority, and access rate criteria.
Maximizing storage utilization: you can use Storage Foundation Flexible Storage
Sharing for data redundancy, high availability, and disaster recovery, without
physically shared storage.
Migrating your data: you can use Storage Foundation Portable Data Containers
to easily and reliably migrate data from one environment to another.
For a supplemental guide that documents Storage Foundation use case solutions
using example scenarios: See the Symantec Storage Foundation and High
Availability Solutions Solutions Guide.
33
Chapter
How Symantec Dynamic

Multi-Pathing works
How DMP works
Veritas Volume Manager co-existence with Oracle Automatic Storage

Management disks
How DMP works

Symantec Dynamic Multi-Pathing (DMP) provides greater availability, reliability,
and performance by using path failover and load balancing. This feature is available
for multiported disk arrays from various vendors.
Disk arrays can be connected to host systems through multiple paths. To detect
the various paths to a disk, DMP uses a mechanism that is specific to each
supported array. DMP can also differentiate between different enclosures of a
supported array that are connected to the same host system.
The multi-pathing policy that DMP uses depends on the characteristics of the disk
array.
DMP supports the following standard array types:
How Symantec Dynamic Multi-Pathing works

How DMP works
Table 2-1
Array type
Description
Active/Active (A/A)
Allows several paths to be used concurrently for

I/O. Such arrays allow DMP to provide greater I/O
throughput by balancing the I/O load uniformly
across the multiple paths to the LUNs. In the event
that one path fails, DMP automatically routes I/O
over the other available paths.
Asymmetric Active/Active (A/A-A)
A/A-A or Asymmetric Active/Active arrays can be

accessed through secondary storage paths with
little performance degradation. The behavior is
similar to ALUA, except that it does not support
those SCSI commands which an ALUA array
supports.
Asymmetric Logical Unit Access (ALUA) DMP supports all variants of ALUA.
Active/Passive (A/P)
Allows access to its LUNs (logical units; real disks

or virtual disks created using hardware) via the
primary (active) path on a single controller (also
known as an access port or a storage processor)
during normal operation.
In implicit failover mode (or autotrespass mode),
an A/P array automatically fails over by scheduling
I/O to the secondary (passive) path on a separate
controller if the primary path fails. This passive port
is not used for I/O until the active port fails. In A/P
arrays, path failover can occur for a single LUN if
I/O fails on the primary path.
This array mode supports concurrent I/O and load
balancing by having multiple primary paths into a
controller. This functionality is provided by a
controller with multiple ports, or by the insertion of
a SAN switch between an array and a controller.
Failover to the secondary (passive) path occurs
only if all the active primary paths fail.
35

How DMP works
Table 2-1
Array type
(continued)
Description
Active/Passive in explicit failover mode The appropriate command must be issued to the
or non-autotrespass mode (A/PF)
array to make the LUNs fail over to the secondary
path.
Active/Passive with LUN group failover For Active/Passive arrays with LUN group failover
(A/PG)
(A/PG arrays), a group of LUNs that are connected
through a controller is treated as a single failover
entity. Unlike A/P arrays, failover occurs at the
controller level, and not for individual LUNs. The
primary controller and the secondary controller are
each connected to a separate group of LUNs. If a
single LUN in the primary controllers LUN group
fails, all LUNs in that group fail over to the
secondary controller.
An array policy module (APM) may define array types to DMP in addition to the
standard types for the arrays that it supports.
Symantec Storage Foundation uses DMP metanodes (DMP nodes) to access disk
devices connected to the system. For each disk in a supported array, DMP maps
one node to the set of paths that are connected to the disk. Additionally, DMP
associates the appropriate multi-pathing policy for the disk array with the node.
For disks in an unsupported array, DMP maps a separate node to each path that
is connected to a disk. The raw and block devices for the nodes are created in the
directories /dev/vx/rdmp and /dev/vx/dmp respectively.
Figure 2-1 shows how DMP sets up a node for a disk in a supported disk array.
36

How DMP works
How DMP represents multiple physical paths to a disk as one node
Figure 2-1
VxVM
Host
c1
Single DMP node
c2
Mapped by DMP
DMP
Multiple paths
Multiple paths
Disk
DMP implements a disk device naming scheme that allows you to recognize to
which array a disk belongs.
Figure 2-2 shows an example where two paths, sdf and sdm, exist to a single disk
in the enclosure, but VxVM uses the single DMP node, enc0_0, to access it.
Example of multi-pathing for a disk enclosure in a SAN environment
Figure 2-2
Host
c1
VxVM
c2
enc0_0
Mapped
by DMP
Fibre Channel
switches
DMP
sdf
sdm
Disk enclosure
enc0
Disk is sdf or sdm
depending on the path
See About enclosure-based naming on page 38.
See Changing the disk device naming scheme on page 263.
See Discovering and configuring newly added disk devices on page 185.
37

How DMP works
Device discovery
Device discovery is the term used to describe the process of discovering the disks
that are attached to a host. This feature is important for DMP because it needs to
support a growing number of disk arrays from a number of vendors. In conjunction
with the ability to discover the devices attached to a host, the Device Discovery
service enables you to add support for new disk arrays. The Device Discovery uses
a facility called the Device Discovery Layer (DDL).
The DDL enables you to add support for new disk arrays without the need for a
reboot.
See How to administer the Device Discovery Layer on page 191.
About enclosure-based naming

Enclosure-based naming provides an alternative to operating system-based device
naming. In a Storage Area Network (SAN) that uses Fibre Channel switches,
information about disk location provided by the operating system may not correctly
indicate the physical location of the disks. Enclosure-based naming allows SF to
access enclosures as separate physical entities. By configuring redundant copies
of your data on separate enclosures, you can safeguard against failure of one or
more enclosures.
Figure 2-3 shows a typical SAN environment where host controllers are connected
to multiple enclosures through a Fibre Channel switch.
38

How DMP works
Figure 2-3
Example configuration for disk enclosures connected through a

Fibre Channel switch
Host
c1
Fibre Channel
switch
Disk enclosures
enc0
enc1
enc2
In such a configuration, enclosure-based naming can be used to refer to each disk

within an enclosure. For example, the device names for the disks in enclosure enc0
are named enc0_0, enc0_1, and so on. The main benefit of this scheme is that it
lets you quickly determine where a disk is physically located in a large SAN
configuration.
In most disk arrays, you can use hardware-based storage management to represent
several physical disks as one LUN to the operating system. In such cases, VxVM
also sees a single logical disk device rather than its component disks. For this
reason, when reference is made to a disk within an enclosure, this disk may be
either a physical disk or a LUN.
Another important benefit of enclosure-based naming is that it enables VxVM to
avoid placing redundant copies of data in the same enclosure. This is a good thing
to avoid as each enclosure can be considered to be a separate fault domain. For
example, if a mirrored volume were configured only on the disks in enclosure enc1,
the failure of the cable between the switch and the enclosure would make the entire
volume unavailable.
If required, you can replace the default name that SF assigns to an enclosure with
one that is more meaningful to your configuration.
39

How DMP works
Figure 2-4 shows a High Availability (HA) configuration where redundant-loop access
to storage is implemented by connecting independent controllers on the host to
separate switches with independent paths to the enclosures.
Example HA configuration using multiple switches to provide
redundant loop access
Figure 2-4
Host
c1
c2
Fibre Channel
switches
Disk enclosures
enc0
enc1
enc2
Such a configuration protects against the failure of one of the host controllers (c1
and c2), or of the cable between the host and one of the switches. In this example,
each disk is known by the same name to VxVM for all of the paths over which it
can be accessed. For example, the disk device enc0_0 represents a single disk for
which two different paths are known to the operating system, such as sdf and sdm.
See Changing the disk device naming scheme on page 263.
To take account of fault domains when configuring data redundancy, you can control
how mirrored volumes are laid out across enclosures.
How DMP monitors I/O on paths

In VxVM prior to release 5.0, DMP had one kernel daemon (errord) that performed
error processing, and another (restored) that performed path restoration activities.
From release 5.0, DMP maintains a pool of kernel threads that are used to perform
such tasks as error processing, path restoration, statistics collection, and SCSI
request callbacks. The vxdmpadm gettune command can be used to provide
40

How DMP works
information about the threads. The name restored has been retained for backward
compatibility.
One kernel thread responds to I/O failures on a path by initiating a probe of the host
bus adapter (HBA) that corresponds to the path. Another thread then takes the
appropriate action according to the response from the HBA. The action taken can
be to retry the I/O request on the path, or to fail the path and reschedule the I/O on
an alternate path.
The restore kernel task is woken periodically (by default, every 5 minutes) to check
the health of the paths, and to resume I/O on paths that have been restored. As
some paths may suffer from intermittent failure, I/O is only resumed on a path if the
path has remained healthy for a given period of time (by default, 5 minutes). DMP
can be configured with different policies for checking the paths.
See Configuring DMP path restoration policies on page 247.
The statistics-gathering task records the start and end time of each I/O request,
and the number of I/O failures and retries on each path. DMP can be configured to
use this information to prevent the SCSI driver being flooded by I/O requests. This
feature is known as I/O throttling.
If an I/O request relates to a mirrored volume, VxVM specifies the FAILFAST flag.
In such cases, DMP does not retry failed I/O requests on the path, and instead
marks the disks on that path as having failed.
See Path failover mechanism on page 41.
See I/O throttling on page 42.
Path failover mechanism

DMP enhances system availability when used with disk arrays having multiple
paths. In the event of the loss of a path to a disk array, DMP automatically selects
the next available path for I/O requests without intervention from the administrator.
DMP is also informed when a connection is repaired or restored, and when you
add or remove devices after the system has been fully booted (provided that the
operating system recognizes the devices correctly).
If required, the response of DMP to I/O failure on a path can be tuned for the paths
to individual arrays. DMP can be configured to time out an I/O request either after
a given period of time has elapsed without the request succeeding, or after a given
number of retries on a path have failed.
See Configuring the response to I/O failures on page 242.
41

How DMP works
Subpaths Failover Group (SFG)

A subpaths failover group (SFG) represents a group of paths which could fail and
restore together. When an I/O error is encountered on a path in an SFG, DMP does
proactive path probing on the other paths of that SFG as well. This behavior adds
greatly to the performance of path failover thus improving I/O performance. Currently
the criteria followed by DMP to form the subpaths failover groups is to bundle the
paths with the same endpoints from the host to the array into one logical storage
failover group.
See Configuring Subpaths Failover Groups (SFG) on page 245.
Low Impact Path Probing (LIPP)

The restore daemon in DMP keeps probing the LUN paths periodically. This behavior
helps DMP to keep the path states up-to-date even when no I/O occurs on a path.
Low Impact Path Probing adds logic to the restore daemon to optimize the number
of the probes performed while the path status is being updated by the restore
daemon. This optimization is achieved with the help of the logical subpaths failover
groups. With LIPP logic in place, DMP probes only a limited number of paths within
a subpaths failover group (SFG), instead of probing all the paths in an SFG. Based
on these probe results, DMP determines the states of all the paths in that SFG.
See Configuring Low Impact Path Probing (LIPP) on page 245.
I/O throttling
If I/O throttling is enabled, and the number of outstanding I/O requests builds up
on a path that has become less responsive, DMP can be configured to prevent new
I/O requests being sent on the path either when the number of outstanding I/O
requests has reached a given value, or a given time has elapsed since the last
successful I/O request on the path. While throttling is applied to a path, the new I/O
requests on that path are scheduled on other available paths. The throttling is
removed from the path if the HBA reports no error on the path, or if an outstanding
I/O request on the path succeeds.
See Configuring the I/O throttling mechanism on page 244.
Load balancing
By default, Symantec Dynamic Multi-Pathing (DMP) uses the Minimum Queue I/O
policy for load balancing across paths for all array types. Load balancing maximizes
I/O throughput by using the total bandwidth of all available paths. I/O is sent down
the path that has the minimum outstanding I/Os.
For Active/Passive (A/P) disk arrays, I/O is sent down the primary paths. If all of
the primary paths fail, I/O is switched over to the available secondary paths. As the
42

How DMP works
continuous transfer of ownership of LUNs from one controller to another results in

severe I/O slowdown, load balancing across primary and secondary paths is not
performed for A/P disk arrays unless they support concurrent I/O.
For other arrays, load balancing is performed across all the currently active paths.
You can change the I/O policy for the paths to an enclosure or disk array.
See Specifying the I/O policy on page 233.
DMP in a clustered environment

Note: You need an additional license to use the cluster feature of Veritas Volume
Manager (VxVM). Clustering is only supported for VxVM.
In a clustered environment where Active/Passive (A/P) type disk arrays are shared
by multiple hosts, all nodes in the cluster must access the disk through the same
physical storage controller port. Accessing a disk through multiple paths
simultaneously can severely degrade I/O performance (sometimes referred to as
the ping-pong effect). Path failover on a single cluster node is also coordinated
across the cluster so that all the nodes continue to share the same physical path.
Prior to release 4.1 of VxVM, the clustering and DMP features could not handle
automatic failback in A/P arrays when a path was restored, and did not support
failback for explicit failover mode arrays. Failback could only be implemented
manually by running the vxdctl enable command on each cluster node after the
path failure had been corrected. From release 4.1, failback is now an automatic
cluster-wide operation that is coordinated by the master node. Automatic failback
in explicit failover mode arrays is also handled by issuing the appropriate low-level
command.
Note: Support for automatic failback of an A/P array requires that an appropriate
Array Support Library (ASL) is installed on the system. An Array Policy Module
(APM) may also be required.
See About discovering disks and dynamically adding disk arrays on page 187.
For Active/Active type disk arrays, any disk can be simultaneously accessed through
all available physical paths to it. In a clustered environment, the nodes do not need
to access a disk through the same physical path.
See How to administer the Device Discovery Layer on page 191.
See Configuring Array Policy Modules on page 249.
43

Veritas Volume Manager co-existence with Oracle Automatic Storage Management disks
About enabling or disabling controllers with shared disk groups

Prior to release 5.0, Veritas Volume Manager (VxVM) did not allow enabling or
disabling of paths or controllers connected to a disk that is part of a shared Veritas
Volume Manager disk group. From VxVM 5.0 onward, such operations are supported
on shared DMP nodes in a cluster.
Veritas Volume Manager co-existence with Oracle

Automatic Storage Management disks
Automatic Storage Management (ASM) disks are the disks used by Oracle Automatic
Storage Management software. Veritas Volume Manager (VxVM) co-exists with
Oracle ASM disks, by recognizing the disks as the type Oracle ASM. VxVM protects
ASM disks from any operations that may overwrite the disk. VxVM classifies and
displays the ASM disks as ASM format disks. You cannot initialize an ASM disk,
or perform any VxVM operations that may overwrite the disk.
If the disk is claimed as an ASM disk, disk initialization commands fail with an
appropriate failure message. The vxdisk init command and the vxdisksetup
command fail, even if the force option is specified. The vxprivutil command also
fails for disks under ASM control, to prevent any on-disk modification of the ASM
device.
If the target disk is under ASM control, any rootability operations that overwrite the
target disk fail. A message indicates that the disk is already in use as an ASM disk.
The rootability operations include operations to create a VM root image
(vxcp_lvmroot command) , create a VM root mirror (vxrootmir command), or
restore the LVM root image (vxres_lvmroot command). The vxdestroy_lvmroot
command also fails for ASM disks, since the target disk is not under LVM control
as expected.
Disks that ASM accessed previously but that no longer belong to an ASM disk group
are called FORMER ASM disks. If you remove an ASM disk from ASM control,
VxVM labels the disk as a FORMER ASM disk. VxVM enforces the same restrictions
for FORMER ASM disks as for ASM disks, to enable ASM to reuse the disk in the
future. To use a FORMER ASM disk with VxVM, you must clean the disk of ASM
information after you remove the disk from ASM control. If a disk initialization
command is issued on a FORMER ASM disk, the command fails. A message
indicates that the disk must be cleaned up before the disk can be initialized for use
with VxVM.
44

45
To remove a FORMER ASM disk from ASM control for use with VxVM
Clean the disk with the dd command to remove all ASM identification information
on it. For example:
dd if=/dev/zero of=/dev/rdsk/<wholedisk|partition> count=1 bs=1024
where wholedisk is a disk name in the format: cxtydz

where partition is a partition name in the format:cxtydzsn
Perform a disk scan:

# vxdisk scandisks
To view the ASM disks
You can use either of the following commands to display ASM disks:
The vxdisk list command displays the disk type as ASM.
# vxdisk list
DEVICE
Disk_0s2
Disk_1
EVA4K6K0_0
EVA4K6K0_1
TYPE
auto:LVM
auto:ASM
auto
auto
DISK
-
GROUP
-
STATUS
LVM
ASM
online
online
The vxdisk classify command classifies and displays ASM disks as Oracle
ASM.
# vxdisk -d classify disk=c1t0d5
device:
status:
type:
groupid:
hostname:
domainid:
centralhost:
c1t0d5
CLASSIFIED
Oracle ASM
-
Specify the -f option to the vxdisk classify command, to perform a full scan
of the OS devices.

To check if a particular disk is under ASM control
Use the vxisasm utility to check if a particular disk is under ASM control.
# /etc/vx/bin/vxisasm 3pardata0_2799
3pardata0_2799
ACTIVE
# /etc/vx/bin/vxisasm 3pardata0_2798
3pardata0_2798
FORMER
Alternatively, use the vxisforeign utility to check if the disk is under control
of any foreign software like LVM or ASM:
# /etc/vx/bin/vxisforeign 3pardata0_2799
3pardata0_2799
ASM
ACTIVE
# /etc/vx/bin/vxisforeign 3pardata0_2798
3pardata0_2798
ASM
FORMER
46
Chapter
How Veritas Volume

Manager works
How Veritas Volume Manager works with the operating system
How Veritas Volume Manager handles storage management
Volume layouts in Veritas Volume Manager
Online relayout
Volume resynchronization
Hot-relocation
Dirty region logging
Volume snapshots
FastResync
Volume sets
How VxVM handles hardware clones or snapshots
How Veritas Volume Manager works with the

operating system
Veritas Volume Manager (VxVM) operates as a subsystem between your operating
system and your data management systems, such as file systems and database
management systems. VxVM is tightly coupled with the operating system. Before
a disk or LUN can be brought under VxVM control, the disk must be accessible
How Veritas Volume Manager works

How Veritas Volume Manager works with the operating system
through the operating system device interface. VxVM is layered on top of the
operating system interface services, and is dependent upon how the operating
system accesses physical disks.
VxVM is dependent upon the operating system for the following functionality:
operating system (disk) devices
device handles
VxVM Dynamic Multi-Pathing (DMP) metadevice
VxVM relies on the following constantly-running daemons and kernel threads for
its operation:
vxconfigd
The VxVM configuration daemon maintains disk and group

configurations and communicates configuration changes
to the kernel, and modifies configuration information stored
on disks.
See the vxconfigd(1m) manual page.
vxiod
VxVM I/O kernel threads provide extended I/O operations

without blocking calling processes. By default, 16 I/O
threads are started at boot time, and at least one I/O thread
must continue to run at all times.
See the vxiod(1m) manual page.
vxrelocd
The hot-relocation daemon monitors VxVM for events that

affect redundancy, and performs hot-relocation to restore
redundancy. If thin provision disks are configured in the
system, then the storage space of a deleted volume is
reclaimed by this daemon as configured by the policy.
See the vxrelocd(1m) manual page.
How data is stored

Several methods are used to store data on physical disks. These methods organize
data on the disk so the data can be stored and retrieved efficiently. The basic method
of disk organization is called formatting. Formatting prepares the hard disk so that
files can be written to and retrieved from the disk by using a prearranged storage
pattern.
Two methods are used to store information on formatted hard disks: physical-storage
layout and logical-storage layout. VxVM uses the logical-storage layout method.
See How Veritas Volume Manager handles storage management on page 49.
48

How Veritas Volume Manager handles storage

management
Veritas Volume Manager (VxVM) uses the following types of objects to handle
storage management:
Physical objects
Physical disks, LUNs (virtual disks implemented in hardware), or

other hardware with block and raw operating system device
interfaces that are used to store data.
See Physical objects on page 49.
Virtual objects
When one or more physical disks are brought under the control of
VxVM, it creates virtual objects called volumes on those physical
disks. Each volume records and retrieves data from one or more
physical disks. Volumes are accessed by file systems, databases,
or other applications in the same way that physical disks are
accessed. Volumes are also composed of other virtual objects
(plexes and subdisks) that are used in changing the volume
configuration. Volumes and their virtual components are called
virtual objects or VxVM objects.
See Virtual objects on page 51.
Physical objects
A physical disk is the basic storage device (media) where the data is ultimately
stored. You can access the data on a physical disk by using a device name to locate
the disk. The physical disk device name varies with the computer system you use.
Not all parameters are used on all systems.
Typical device names are of the form sda or hdb, where sda references the first (a)
SCSI disk, and hdb references the second (b) EIDE disk.
Figure 3-1 shows how a physical disk and device name (devname) are illustrated
in the Veritas Volume Manager (VxVM) documentation.
Figure 3-1
devname
Physical disk example
49

VxVM writes identification information on physical disks under VxVM control (VM
disks). VxVM disks can be identified even after physical disk disconnection or
system outages. VxVM can then re-form disk groups and logical objects to provide
failure detection and to speed system recovery.
About disk partitions

Figure 3-2 shows how a physical disk can be divided into one or more partitions.
Partition example
Figure 3-2
Physical disk with several partitions
devname1
Partition
devname1
devname2
devname
The partition number is added at the end of the devname.
Disk arrays
Performing I/O to disks is a relatively slow process because disks are physical
devices that require time to move the heads to the correct position on the disk
before reading or writing. If all of the read or write operations are done to individual
disks, one at a time, the read-write time can become unmanageable. Performing
these operations on multiple disks can help to reduce this problem.
A disk array is a collection of physical disks that VxVM can represent to the operating
system as one or more virtual disks or volumes. The volumes created by VxVM
look and act to the operating system like physical disks. Applications that interact
with volumes should work in the same way as with physical disks.
Figure 3-3 shows how VxVM represents the disks in a disk array as several volumes
to the operating system.
50

How VxVM presents the disks in a disk array as volumes to the

operating system
Figure 3-3
Operating system
Veritas Volume Manager
Volumes
Physical disks
Disk 1
Disk 2
Disk 3
Disk 4
Data can be spread across several disks within an array, or across disks spanning
multiple arrays, to distribute or balance I/O operations across the disks. Using
parallel I/O across multiple disks in this way improves I/O performance by increasing
data transfer speed and overall throughput for the array.
Virtual objects
Veritas Volume Manager (VxVM) uses multiple virtualization layers to provide distinct
functionality and reduce physical limitations. The connection between physical
objects and VxVM objects is made when you place a physical disk under VxVM
control.
Table 3-1 describes the virtual objects in VxVM.
Table 3-1
VxVM virtual objects
Virtual object
Description
Disk groups
A disk group is a collection of disks that share a common

configuration and which are managed by VxVM. A disk group
configuration is a set of records with detailed information about
related VxVM objects, their attributes, and their connections. A disk
group name can be up to 31 characters long. Disk group names
must not contain periods (.).
51

Table 3-1
VxVM virtual objects (continued)
Virtual object
Description
VxVM disks
A VxVM disk is assigned to a physical disk, when you place the

physical disk under VxVM control. A VxVM disk is usually in a disk
group. VxVM allocates storage from a contiguous area of VxVM
disk space.
Each VxVM disk corresponds to at least one physical disk or disk
partition.
A VxVM disk typically includes a public region (allocated storage)
and a small private region where VxVM internal configuration
information is stored.
Subdisks
A subdisk is a set of contiguous disk blocks. A block is a unit of

space on the disk. VxVM allocates disk space using subdisks. A
VxVM disk can be divided into one or more subdisks. Each subdisk
represents a specific portion of a VxVM disk, which is mapped to
a specific region of a physical disk.
Plexes
A plex consists of one or more subdisks located on one or more

physical disks.
Volumes
A volume is a virtual disk device that appears to applications,

databases, and file systems like a physical disk device, but does
not have the physical limitations of a physical disk device. A volume
consists of one or more plexes, each holding a copy of the selected
data in the volume. Due to its virtual nature, a volume is not
restricted to a particular disk or a specific area of a disk. The
configuration of a volume can be changed by using VxVM user
interfaces. Configuration changes can be accomplished without
causing disruption to applications or file systems that are using the
volume. For example, a volume can be mirrored on separate disks
or moved to use different disk storage.
After installing VxVM on a host system, you must bring the contents of physical
disks under VxVM control by collecting the VxVM disks into disk groups and
allocating the disk group space to create logical volumes.
Bringing the contents of physical disks under VxVM control is accomplished only
if VxVM takes control of the physical disks and the disk is not under control of
another storage manager such as LVM.
For more information on how LVM and VxVM disks co-exist or how to convert LVM
disks to VxVM disks, see the Symantec Storage Foundation and High Availability
Solutions Solutions Guide.
52

VxVM creates virtual objects and makes logical connections between the objects.
The virtual objects are then used by VxVM to do storage management tasks.
The vxprint command displays detailed information about the VxVM objects that
exist on a system.
See the vxprint(1M) manual page.
Combining virtual objects in Veritas Volume Manager

Veritas Volume Manager (VxVM) virtual objects are combined to build volumes.
The virtual objects contained in volumes are VxVM disks, disk groups, subdisks,
and plexes. VxVM virtual objects are organized in the following ways:
VxVM disks are grouped into disk groups
Subdisks (each representing a specific region of a disk) are combined to form

plexes
Volumes are composed of one or more plexes
Figure 3-4 shows the connections between VxVM virtual objects and how they
relate to physical disks.
53

Connection between objects in VxVM
Figure 3-4
Disk group
vol01
vol02
Volumes
vol01-01
vol02-01
vol02-02
vol01-01
vol02-01
vol02-02
disk01-01
disk02-01
disk03-01
disk01-01
disk02-01
disk03-01
Subdisks
disk01-01
disk02-01
disk03-01
VM disks
disk01
disk02
disk03
devname1
devname2
devname3
Plexes
Physical
disks
The disk group contains three VxVM disks which are used to create two volumes.
Volume vol01 is simple and has a single plex. Volume vol02 is a mirrored volume
with two plexes.
The various types of virtual objects (disk groups, VM disks, subdisks, plexes, and
volumes) are described in the following sections. Other types of objects exist in
Veritas Volume Manager, such as data change objects (DCOs), and volume sets,
to provide extended functionality.
About the configuration daemon in Veritas Volume Manager

The Veritas Volume Manager (VxVM) configuration daemon (vxconfigd) provides
the interface between VxVM commands and the kernel device drivers. vxconfigd
handles configuration change requests from VxVM utilities, communicates the
54

change requests to the VxVM kernel, and modifies configuration information stored
on disk. vxconfigd also initializes VxVM when the system is booted.
The vxdctl command is the command-line interface to the vxconfigd daemon.
You can use vxdctl to:
Control the operation of the vxconfigd daemon.
Change the system-wide definition of the default disk group.
In VxVM 4.0 and later releases, disk access records are no longer stored in the
/etc/vx/volboot file. Non-persistent disk access records are created by scanning
the disks at system startup. Persistent disk access records for simple and nopriv
disks are permanently stored in the /etc/vx/darecs file in the root file system.
The vxconfigd daemon reads the contents of this file to locate the disks and the
configuration databases for their disk groups.
The /etc/vx/darecs file is also used to store definitions of foreign devices that
are not autoconfigurable. Such entries may be added by using the vxddladm
addforeign command.
See the vxddladm(1M) manual page.
If your system is configured to use Dynamic Multi-Pathing (DMP), you can also use
vxdctl to:
Reconfigure the DMP database to include disk devices newly attached to, or
removed from the system.
Create DMP device nodes in the /dev/vx/dmp and /dev/vx/rdmp directories.
Update the DMP database with changes in path type for active/passive disk
arrays. Use the utilities provided by the disk-array vendor to change the path
type between primary and secondary.
See the vxdctl(1M) manual page.
Multiple paths to disk arrays

Some disk arrays provide multiple ports to access their disk devices. These ports,
coupled with the host bus adaptor (HBA) controller and any data bus or I/O processor
local to the array, make up multiple hardware paths to access the disk devices.
Such disk arrays are called multipathed disk arrays. This type of disk array can be
connected to host systems in many different configurations, (such as multiple ports
connected to different controllers on a single host, chaining of the ports through a
single controller on a host, or ports connected to different hosts simultaneously).
See How DMP works on page 34.
55


A Veritas Volume Manager (VxVM) virtual device is defined by a volume. A volume
has a layout defined by the association of a volume to one or more plexes, each
of which map to one or more subdisks. The volume presents a virtual device interface
that is exposed to other applications for data access. These logical building blocks
re-map the volume address space through which I/O is re-directed at run-time.
Different volume layouts provide different levels of availability and performance. A
volume layout can be configured and changed to provide the desired level of service.
Non-layered volumes
In a non-layered volume, a subdisk maps directly to a VxVM disk. This allows the
subdisk to define a contiguous extent of storage space backed by the public region
of a VxVM disk. When active, the VxVM disk is directly associated with an underlying
physical disk. The combination of a volume layout and the physical disks therefore
determines the storage service available from a given virtual device.
Layered volumes
A layered volume is constructed by mapping its subdisks to underlying volumes.
The subdisks in the underlying volumes must map to VxVM disks, and hence to
attached physical storage.
Layered volumes allow for more combinations of logical compositions, some of
which may be desirable for configuring a virtual device. For example, layered
volumes allow for high availability when using striping. Because permitting free use
of layered volumes throughout the command level would have resulted in unwieldy
administration, some ready-made layered volume configurations are designed into
VxVM.
See About layered volumes on page 70.
These ready-made configurations operate with built-in rules to automatically match
desired levels of service within specified constraints. The automatic configuration
is done on a best-effort basis for the current command invocation working against
the current configuration.
To achieve the desired storage service from a set of virtual devices, it may be
necessary to include an appropriate set of VxVM disks into a disk group and to
execute multiple configuration commands.
To the extent that it can, VxVM handles initial configuration and on-line
re-configuration with its set of layouts and administration interface to make this job
easier and more deterministic.
56

Layout methods
Data in virtual objects is organized to create volumes by using the following layout
methods:
Concatenation, spanning, and carving

See Concatenation, spanning, and carving on page 57.
Striping (RAID-0)
See Striping (RAID-0) on page 59.
Mirroring (RAID-1)
See Mirroring (RAID-1) on page 62.
Striping plus mirroring (mirrored-stripe or RAID-0+1)

See Striping plus mirroring (mirrored-stripe or RAID-0+1) on page 63.
Mirroring plus striping (striped-mirror, RAID-1+0 or RAID-10)

See Mirroring plus striping (striped-mirror, RAID-1+0, or RAID-10) on page 64.
RAID-5 (striping with parity)

See RAID-5 (striping with parity) on page 65.
Concatenation, spanning, and carving

Concatenation maps data in a linear manner onto one or more subdisks in a plex.
To access all of the data in a concatenated plex sequentially, data is first accessed
in the first subdisk from the beginning to the end. Data is then accessed in the
remaining subdisks sequentially from the beginning to the end of each subdisk,
until the end of the last subdisk.
The subdisks in a concatenated plex do not have to be physically contiguous and
can belong to more than one VxVM disk. Concatenation using subdisks that reside
on more than one VxVM disk is called spanning.
Figure 3-5 shows the concatenation of two subdisks from the same VxVM disk.
If a single LUN or disk is split into multiple subdisks, and each subdisk belongs to
a unique volume, it is called carving.
57

Example of concatenation
Figure 3-5
Data in Data in
disk01-01 disk01-03
n
n+1 n+2 n+3
Data blocks
disk01-01
disk01-03
Plex with concatenated subdisks
disk01-01
disk01-03
Subdisks
disk01-01
disk01-02
disk01
disk01-03
VM disk
devname
n n+1 n+2
n+3
Physical disk
The blocks n, n+1, n+2 and n+3 (numbered relative to the start of the plex) are
contiguous on the plex, but actually come from two distinct subdisks on the same
physical disk.
The remaining free space in the subdisk disk01-02 on VxVM disk disk01 can be
put to other uses.
You can use concatenation with multiple subdisks when there is insufficient
contiguous space for the plex on any one disk. This form of concatenation can be
used for load balancing between disks, and for head movement optimization on a
particular disk.
Figure 3-6 shows data spread over two subdisks in a spanned plex.
58

Example of spanning
Figure 3-6
Data in
disk01-01
n
Data in
disk02-01
n+1 n+2 n+3
Data blocks
disk01-01
disk02-01
Plex with concatenated subdisks
disk01-01
disk02-01
Subdisks
disk01-01
disk01
disk02-01
devname1
n n+1 n+2
disk02-02
VM disks
disk02
devname2
n+3
Physical disks
The blocks n, n+1, n+2 and n+3 (numbered relative to the start of the plex) are
contiguous on the plex, but actually come from two distinct subdisks from two distinct
physical disks.
The remaining free space in the subdisk disk02-02 on VxVM disk disk02 can be
put to other uses.
Warning: Spanning a plex across multiple disks increases the chance that a disk
failure results in failure of the assigned volume. Use mirroring or RAID-5 to reduce
the risk that a single disk failure results in a volume failure.
Striping (RAID-0)
Striping (RAID-0) is useful if you need large amounts of data written to or read from
physical disks, and performance is important. Striping is also helpful in balancing
the I/O load from multi-user applications across multiple disks. By using parallel
data transfer to and from multiple disks, striping significantly improves data-access
performance.
Striping maps data so that the data is interleaved among two or more physical disks.
A striped plex contains two or more subdisks, spread out over two or more physical
disks. Data is allocated alternately and evenly to the subdisks of a striped plex.
59

The subdisks are grouped into columns, with each physical disk limited to one
column. Each column contains one or more subdisks and can be derived from one
or more physical disks. The number and sizes of subdisks per column can vary.
Additional subdisks can be added to columns, as necessary.
Warning: Striping a volume, or splitting a volume across multiple disks, increases
the chance that a disk failure will result in failure of that volume.
If five volumes are striped across the same five disks, then failure of any one of the
five disks will require that all five volumes be restored from a backup. If each volume
is on a separate disk, only one volume has to be restored. (As an alternative to or
in conjunction with striping, use mirroring or RAID-5 to substantially reduce the
chance that a single disk failure results in failure of a large number of volumes.)
Data is allocated in equal-sized stripe units that are interleaved between the columns.
Each stripe unit is a set of contiguous blocks on a disk. The default stripe unit size
is 64 kilobytes.
Figure 3-7 shows an example with three columns in a striped plex, six stripe units,
and data striped over the three columns.
Figure 3-7
Striping across three columns

Column 0
Column 1
Column 2
Stripe 1
stripe unit
1
stripe unit
2
stripe unit
3
Stripe 2
stripe unit
4
stripe unit
5
stripe unit
6
Subdisk
1
Subdisk
2
Subdisk
3
Plex
60

A stripe consists of the set of stripe units at the same positions across all columns.
In the figure, stripe units 1, 2, and 3 constitute a single stripe.
Viewed in sequence, the first stripe consists of:
stripe unit 1 in column 0
The second stripe consists of:
Striping continues for the length of the columns (if all columns are the same length),
or until the end of the shortest column is reached. Any space remaining at the end
of subdisks in longer columns becomes unused space.
Figure 3-8 shows a striped plex with three equal sized, single-subdisk columns.
Example of a striped plex with one subdisk per column
Figure 3-8
su1
su2
su3
su4
su5
su6
Column 0
Column 1
Column 2
disk01-01
disk02-01
disk03-01
disk01-01
disk02-01
disk03-01
disk01-01
disk02-01
disk03-01
disk01
disk02
disk03
devname1
devname2
devname3
su1
su4
su2 su5
su3
su6
Stripe units
Striped plex
Subdisks
VM disks
Physical disk
There is one column per physical disk. This example shows three subdisks that
occupy all of the space on the VM disks. It is also possible for each subdisk in a
61

striped plex to occupy only a portion of the VM disk, which leaves free space for
other disk management tasks.
Figure 3-9 shows a striped plex with three columns containing subdisks of different
sizes.
Example of a striped plex with concatenated subdisks per column
Figure 3-9
su1
Column 0
su2
su3
su4
su5
su6
Column 1
Column 2
disk02-01
disk03-01
disk01-01
disk03-02
disk02-02
disk03-03
disk02-01
disk03-01
disk01-01
disk03-02
disk02-02
disk03-03
disk02-01
disk03-01
disk01-01
disk03-02
disk02-02
disk03-03
disk01
disk02
disk03
devname1
devname2
devname3
su1 su4
su2
su5
su3
su6
Stripe units
Striped plex
Subdisks
VM disks
Physical disks
Each column contains a different number of subdisks. There is one column per
physical disk. Striped plexes can be created by using a single subdisk from each
of the VM disks being striped across. It is also possible to allocate space from
different regions of the same disk or from another disk (for example, if the size of
the plex is increased). Columns can also contain subdisks from different VM disks.
See Creating a striped volume on page 142.
Mirroring (RAID-1)
Mirroring uses multiple mirrors (plexes) to duplicate the information contained in a
volume. In the event of a physical disk failure, the plex on the failed disk becomes
62

unavailable, but the system continues to operate using the unaffected mirrors.
Similarly, mirroring two LUNs from two separate controllers lets the system operate
if there is a controller failure.
Although a volume can have a single plex, at least two plexes are required to provide
redundancy of data. Each of these plexes must contain disk space from different
disks to achieve redundancy.
When striping or spanning across a large number of disks, failure of any one of
those disks can make the entire plex unusable. Because the likelihood of one out
of several disks failing is reasonably high, you should consider mirroring to improve
the reliability (and availability) of a striped or spanned volume.
See Creating a mirrored volume on page 140.
Striping plus mirroring (mirrored-stripe or RAID-0+1)

VxVM supports the combination of mirroring above striping. The combined layout
is called a mirrored-stripe layout. A mirrored-stripe layout offers the dual benefits
of striping to spread data across multiple disks, while mirroring provides redundancy
of data.
For mirroring above striping to be effective, the striped plex and its mirrors must be
allocated from separate disks.
Figure 3-10 shows an example where two plexes, each striped across three disks,
are attached as mirrors to the same volume to create a mirrored-stripe volume.
Figure 3-10
column 0
Mirrored-stripe volume laid out on six disks
column 1
column 2
Mirrored-stripe
volume
Striped
plex
Mirror
column 0
column 1
column 2
Striped
plex
See Creating a mirrored-stripe volume on page 143.

The layout type of the data plexes in a mirror can be concatenated or striped. Even
if only one is striped, the volume is still termed a mirrored-stripe volume. If they are
all concatenated, the volume is termed a mirrored-concatenated volume.
63

Mirroring plus striping (striped-mirror, RAID-1+0, or RAID-10)

Veritas Volume Manager (VxVM) supports the combination of striping above
mirroring. This combined layout is called a striped-mirror layout. Putting mirroring
below striping mirrors each column of the stripe. If there are multiple subdisks per
column, each subdisk can be mirrored individually instead of each column.
A striped-mirror volume is an example of a layered volume.
As for a mirrored-stripe volume, a striped-mirror volume offers the dual benefits of
striping to spread data across multiple disks, while mirroring provides redundancy
of data. In addition, it enhances redundancy, and reduces recovery time after disk
failure.
Figure 3-11 shows an example where a striped-mirror volume is created by using
each of three existing 2-disk mirrored volumes to form a separate column within a
striped plex.
Figure 3-11
Striped-mirror volume laid out on six disks
Underlying mirrored volumes

Striped-mirror
volume
column 0
column 1
column 2
column 0
column 1
column 2
Mirror
Striped plex
See Creating a striped-mirror volume on page 143.

Figure 3-12 shows that the failure of a disk in a mirrored-stripe layout detaches an
entire data plex, thereby losing redundancy on the entire volume.
64

Figure 3-12
How the failure of a single disk affects mirrored-stripe and

striped-mirror volumes
Mirrored-stripe volume
with no
Striped plex redundancy
Mirror
Detached
striped plex
Failure of disk detaches plex

Striped-mirror volume
with partial
redundancy
Mirror
Striped plex
Failure of disk removes redundancy from a mirror

When the disk is replaced, the entire plex must be brought up to date. Recovering
the entire plex can take a substantial amount of time. If a disk fails in a striped-mirror
layout, only the failing subdisk must be detached, and only that portion of the volume
loses redundancy. When the disk is replaced, only a portion of the volume needs
to be recovered. Additionally, a mirrored-stripe volume is more vulnerable to being
put out of use altogether should a second disk fail before the first failed disk has
been replaced, either manually or by hot-relocation.
Compared to mirrored-stripe volumes, striped-mirror volumes are more tolerant of
disk failure, and recovery time is shorter.
If the layered volume concatenates instead of striping the underlying mirrored
volumes, the volume is termed a concatenated-mirror volume.
RAID-5 (striping with parity)

Although both mirroring (RAID-1) and RAID-5 provide redundancy of data, they
use different methods. Mirroring provides data redundancy by maintaining multiple
complete copies of the data in a volume. Data being written to a mirrored volume
65

is reflected in all copies. If a portion of a mirrored volume fails, the system continues
to use the other copies of the data.
RAID-5 provides data redundancy by using parity. Parity is a calculated value used
to reconstruct data after a failure. While data is being written to a RAID-5 volume,
parity is calculated by doing an exclusive OR (XOR) procedure on the data. The
resulting parity is then written to the volume. The data and calculated parity are
contained in a plex that is striped across multiple disks. If a portion of a RAID-5
volume fails, the data that was on that portion of the failed volume can be recreated
from the remaining data and parity information. It is also possible to mix
concatenation and striping in the layout.
Figure 3-13 shows parity locations in a RAID-5 array configuration.
Figure 3-13
Stripe 1
Stripe 2
Stripe 3
Stripe 4
Parity locations in a RAID-5 model
Data
Data
Parity
Data
Parity
Data
Data
Parity
Data
Data
Data
Data
Parity
Every stripe has a column containing a parity stripe unit and columns containing
data. The parity is spread over all of the disks in the array, reducing the write time
for large independent writes because the writes do not have to wait until a single
parity disk can accept the data.
RAID-5 volumes can additionally perform logging to minimize recovery time. RAID-5
volumes use RAID-5 logs to keep a copy of the data and parity currently being
written. RAID-5 logging is optional and can be created along with RAID-5 volumes
or added later.
See Veritas Volume Manager RAID-5 arrays on page 67.
Note: Veritas Volume Manager (VxVM) supports RAID-5 for private disk groups,
but not for shareable disk groups in a Cluster Volume Manager (CVM) environment.
In addition, VxVM does not support the mirroring of RAID-5 volumes that are
configured using VxVM software. RAID-5 LUNs hardware may be mirrored.
Traditional RAID-5 arrays

A traditional RAID-5 array is several disks organized in rows and columns. A column
is a number of disks located in the same ordinal position in the array. A row is the
minimal number of disks necessary to support the full width of a parity stripe.
66

Figure 3-14 shows the row and column arrangement of a traditional RAID-5 array.
Figure 3-14
Traditional RAID-5 array
Stripe 1
Stripe3
Row 0
Stripe 2
Row 1
Column 0
Column 1
Column 2
Column 3
This traditional array structure supports growth by adding more rows per column.
Striping is accomplished by applying the first stripe across the disks in Row 0, then
the second stripe across the disks in Row 1, then the third stripe across the Row
0 disks, and so on. This type of array requires all disks columns and rows to be of
equal size.
Veritas Volume Manager RAID-5 arrays

The RAID-5 array structure in Veritas Volume Manager (VxVM) differs from the
traditional structure. Due to the virtual nature of its disks and other objects, VxVM
does not use rows.
Figure 3-15 shows how VxVM uses columns consisting of variable length subdisks,
where each subdisk represents a specific area of a disk.
67

Figure 3-15
Veritas Volume Manager RAID-5 array
Stripe 1
Stripe 2
SD
SD
SD
SD
SD
SD
SD
SD
Column 0
Column 1
Column 2
Column 3
SD = subdisk
VxVM allows each column of a RAID-5 plex to consist of a different number of

subdisks. The subdisks in a given column can be derived from different physical
disks. Additional subdisks can be added to the columns as necessary. Striping is
implemented by applying the first stripe across each subdisk at the top of each
column, then applying another stripe below that, and so on for the length of the
columns. Equal-sized stripe units are used for each column. For RAID-5, the default
stripe unit size is 16 kilobytes.
Note: Mirroring of RAID-5 volumes is not supported.
See Creating a RAID-5 volume on page 144.
Left-symmetric layout
There are several layouts for data and parity that can be used in the setup of a
RAID-5 array. The implementation of RAID-5 in VxVM uses a left-symmetric layout.
This provides optimal performance for both random I/O operations and large
sequential I/O operations. However, the layout selection is not as critical for
performance as are the number of columns and the stripe unit size.
Left-symmetric layout stripes both data and parity across columns, placing the parity
in a different column for every stripe of data. The first parity stripe unit is located in
the rightmost column of the first stripe. Each successive parity stripe unit is located
68

in the next stripe, shifted left one column from the previous parity stripe unit location.
If there are more stripes than columns, the parity stripe unit placement begins in
the rightmost column again.
Figure 3-16 shows a left-symmetric parity layout with five disks (one per column).
Left-symmetric layout
Figure 3-16
Column
Stripe
Parity stripe unit
P0
P1
10
11
P2
15
P3
12
13
14
P4
16
17
18
19
Data stripe unit
For each stripe, data is organized starting to the right of the parity stripe unit. In the
figure, data organization for the first stripe begins at P0 and continues to stripe units
0-3. Data organization for the second stripe begins at P1, then continues to stripe
unit 4, and on to stripe units 5-7. Data organization proceeds in this manner for the
remaining stripes.
Each parity stripe unit contains the result of an exclusive OR (XOR) operation
performed on the data in the data stripe units within the same stripe. If one columns
data is inaccessible due to hardware or software failure, the data for each stripe
can be restored by XORing the contents of the remaining columns data stripe units
against their respective parity stripe units.
For example, if a disk corresponding to the whole or part of the far left column fails,
the volume is placed in a degraded mode. While in degraded mode, the data from
the failed column can be recreated by XORing stripe units 1-3 against parity stripe
unit P0 to recreate stripe unit 0, then XORing stripe units 4, 6, and 7 against parity
stripe unit P1 to recreate stripe unit 5, and so on.
Failure of more than one column in a RAID-5 plex detaches the volume. The volume
is no longer allowed to satisfy read or write requests. Once the failed columns have
been recovered, it may be necessary to recover user data from backups.
69

RAID-5 logging
Logging is used to prevent corruption of data during recovery by immediately
recording changes to data and parity to a log area on a persistent device such as
a volume on disk or in non-volatile RAM. The new data and parity are then written
to the disks.
Without logging, it is possible for data not involved in any active writes to be lost or
silently corrupted if both a disk in a RAID-5 volume and the system fail. If this
double-failure occurs, there is no way of knowing if the data being written to the
data portions of the disks or the parity being written to the parity portions have
actually been written. Therefore, the recovery of the corrupted disk may be corrupted
itself.
Figure 3-17 shows a RAID-5 volume configured across three disks (A, B, and C).
Figure 3-17
Incomplete write to a RAID-5 volume
Disk A
Disk B
Completed
data write
Disk C
Corrupted data
Incomplete
parity write
In this volume, recovery of disk Bs corrupted data depends on disk As data and
disk Cs parity both being complete. However, only the data write to disk A is
complete. The parity write to disk C is incomplete, which would cause the data on
disk B to be reconstructed incorrectly.
This failure can be avoided by logging all data and parity writes before committing
them to the array. In this way, the log can be replayed, causing the data and parity
updates to be completed before the reconstruction of the failed drive takes place.
Logs are associated with a RAID-5 volume by being attached as log plexes. More
than one log plex can exist for each RAID-5 volume, in which case the log areas
are mirrored.
About layered volumes

A layered volume is a virtual Veritas Volume Manager (VxVM) object that is built
on top of other volumes. The layered volume structure tolerates failure better and
has greater redundancy than the standard volume structure. For example, in a
striped-mirror layered volume, each mirror (plex) covers a smaller area of storage
space, so recovery is quicker than with a standard mirrored volume.
70

Figure 3-18 shows a typical striped-mirror layered volume where each column is
represented by a subdisk that is built from an underlying mirrored volume.
Figure 3-18
Example of a striped-mirror layered volume

vol01
Striped mirror
volume
vol01-01
vol01-01
Managed
by user
Managed
by VxVM
Striped plex
Column 0
Column 1
vop01
vop02
Subdisks
vop01
vop02
Underlying
mirrored
volumes
disk04-01
disk05-01
disk06-01
disk07-01
Concatenated
plexes
disk04-01
disk05-01
disk06-01
disk07-01
Subdisks on
VM disks
The volume and striped plex in the Managed by user area allow you to perform
normal tasks in VxVM. User tasks can be performed only on the top-level volume
of a layered volume.
Underlying volumes in the Managed by VxVM area are used exclusively by VxVM
and are not designed for user manipulation. You cannot detach a layered volume
or perform any other operation on the underlying volumes by manipulating the
internal structure. You can perform all necessary operations in the Managed by
user area that includes the top-level volume and striped plex (for example, resizing
the volume, changing the column width, or adding a column).
System administrators can manipulate the layered volume structure for
troubleshooting or other operations (for example, to place data on specific disks).
Layered volumes are used by VxVM to perform the following tasks and operations:
71

Online relayout
Creating striped-mirrors
See Creating a striped-mirror volume on page 143.

See the vxassist(1M) manual page.
Creating concatenated-mirrors
See Creating a concatenated-mirror volume

on page 142.
Online Relayout
See Online relayout on page 72.

See the vxrelayout(1M) manual page.
Moving RAID-5 subdisks
See the vxsd(1M) manual page.
Creating Snapshots
See Volume snapshots on page 81.

See the vxsnap(1M) manual page.
Online relayout
Online relayout allows you to convert between storage layouts in VxVM, with
uninterrupted data access. Typically, you would do this to change the redundancy
or performance characteristics of a volume. VxVM adds redundancy to storage
either by duplicating the data (mirroring) or by adding parity (RAID-5). Performance
characteristics of storage in VxVM can be changed by changing the striping
parameters, which are the number of columns and the stripe width.
See Performing online relayout on page 606.
How online relayout works

Online relayout allows you to change the storage layouts that you have already
created in place without disturbing data access. You can change the performance
characteristics of a particular layout to suit your changed requirements. You can
transform one layout to another by invoking a single command.
For example, if a striped layout with a 128KB stripe unit size is not providing optimal
performance, you can use relayout to change the stripe unit size.
File systems mounted on the volumes do not need to be unmounted to achieve this
transformation provided that the file system (such as Veritas File System) supports
online shrink and grow operations.
Online relayout reuses the existing storage space and has space allocation policies
to address the needs of the new layout. The layout transformation process converts
72

Online relayout
a given volume to the destination layout by using minimal temporary space that is
available in the disk group.
The transformation is done by moving one portion of data at a time in the source
layout to the destination layout. Data is copied from the source volume to the
temporary area, and data is removed from the source volume storage area in
portions. The source volume storage area is then transformed to the new layout,
and the data saved in the temporary area is written back to the new layout. This
operation is repeated until all the storage and data in the source volume has been
transformed to the new layout.
The default size of the temporary area used during the relayout depends on the
size of the volume and the type of relayout. For volumes larger than 50MB, the
amount of temporary space that is required is usually 10% of the size of the volume,
from a minimum of 50MB up to a maximum of 1GB. For volumes smaller than 50MB,
the temporary space required is the same as the size of the volume.
The following error message displays the number of blocks required if there is
insufficient free space available in the disk group for the temporary area:
tmpsize too small to perform this relayout (nblks minimum required)
You can override the default size used for the temporary area by using the tmpsize
attribute to vxassist.
As well as the temporary area, space is required for a temporary intermediate
volume when increasing the column length of a striped volume. The amount of
space required is the difference between the column lengths of the target and source
volumes. For example, 20GB of temporary additional space is required to relayout
a 150GB striped volume with 5 columns of length 30GB as 3 columns of length
50GB. In some cases, the amount of temporary space that is required is relatively
large. For example, a relayout of a 150GB striped volume with 5 columns as a
concatenated volume (with effectively one column) requires 120GB of space for
the intermediate volume.
Additional permanent disk space may be required for the destination volumes,
depending on the type of relayout that you are performing. This may happen, for
example, if you change the number of columns in a striped volume.
Figure 3-19 shows how decreasing the number of columns can require disks to be
added to a volume.
73

Online relayout
Example of decreasing the number of columns in a volume
Figure 3-19
Five columns of length L
Three columns of length 5L/3
Note that the size of the volume remains the same but an extra disk is needed to
extend one of the columns.
The following are examples of operations that you can perform using online relayout:
Remove parity from a RAID-5 volume to change it to a concatenated, striped,

or layered volume.
Figure 3-20 shows an example of applying relayout a RAID-5 volume.
Figure 3-20
Example of relayout of a RAID-5 volume to a striped volume
RAID-5 volume
Striped volume
Note that removing parity decreases the overall storage space that the volume
requires.
Add parity to a volume to change it to a RAID-5 volume.

Figure 3-21 shows an example.
Figure 3-21
Example of relayout of a concatenated volume to a RAID-5 volume
Concatenated
volume
RAID-5 volume
Note that adding parity increases the overall storage space that the volume requires.
Change the number of columns in a volume.
74

Online relayout
Figure 3-22 shows an example of changing the number of columns.

Figure 3-22
Example of increasing the number of columns in a volume
Two columns
Three columns
Note that the length of the columns is reduced to conserve the size of the volume.
Change the column stripe width in a volume.

Figure 3-23 shows an example of changing the column stripe width.
Figure 3-23
Example of increasing the stripe width for the columns in a volume
See Performing online relayout on page 606.

See Permitted relayout transformations on page 607.
Limitations of online relayout

Note the following limitations of online relayout:
Log plexes cannot be transformed.
Volume snapshots cannot be taken when there is an online relayout operation

running on the volume.
Online relayout cannot create a non-layered mirrored volume in a single step.

It always creates a layered mirrored volume even if you specify a non-layered
mirrored layout, such as mirror-stripe or mirror-concat. Use the vxassist
convert command to turn the layered mirrored volume that results from a
relayout into a non-layered volume.
The usual restrictions apply for the minimum number of physical disks that are
required to create the destination layout. For example, mirrored volumes require
75

Online relayout
at least as many disks as mirrors, striped and RAID-5 volumes require at least
as many disks as columns, and striped-mirror volumes require at least as many
disks as columns multiplied by mirrors.
To be eligible for layout transformation, the plexes in a mirrored volume must

have identical stripe widths and numbers of columns. Relayout is not possible
unless you make the layouts of the individual plexes identical.
Online relayout cannot transform sparse plexes, nor can it make any plex sparse.
(A sparse plex is a plex that is not the same size as the volume, or that has
regions that are not mapped to any subdisk.)
The number of mirrors in a mirrored volume cannot be changed using relayout.

Instead, use alternative commands, such as the vxassist mirror command.
Only one relayout may be applied to a volume at a time.
Transformation characteristics
Transformation of data from one layout to another involves rearrangement of data
in the existing layout to the new layout. During the transformation, online relayout
retains data redundancy by mirroring any temporary space used. Read and write
access to data is not interrupted during the transformation.
Data is not corrupted if the system fails during a transformation. The transformation
continues after the system is restored and both read and write access are
maintained.
You can reverse the layout transformation process at any time, but the data may
not be returned to the exact previous storage location. Before you reverse a
transformation that is in process, you must stop it.
You can determine the transformation direction by using the vxrelayout status
volume command.
These transformations are protected against I/O failures if there is sufficient
redundancy and space to move the data.
Transformations and volume length

Some layout transformations can cause the volume length to increase or decrease.
If either of these conditions occurs, online relayout uses the vxresize command
to shrink or grow a file system.
See the vxresize(1M) manual page.
76

When storing data redundantly and using mirrored or RAID-5 volumes, VxVM
ensures that all copies of the data match exactly. However, under certain conditions
(usually due to complete system failures), some redundant data on a volume can
become inconsistent or unsynchronized. The mirrored data is not exactly the same
as the original data. Except for normal configuration changes (such as detaching
and reattaching a plex), this can only occur when a system crashes while data is
being written to a volume.
Data is written to the mirrors of a volume in parallel, as is the data and parity in a
RAID-5 volume. If a system crash occurs before all the individual writes complete,
it is possible for some writes to complete while others do not. This can result in the
data becoming unsynchronized. For mirrored volumes, it can cause two reads from
the same region of the volume to return different results, if different mirrors are used
to satisfy the read request. In the case of RAID-5 volumes, it can lead to parity
corruption and incorrect data reconstruction.
VxVM ensures that all mirrors contain exactly the same data and that the data and
parity in RAID-5 volumes agree. This process is called volume resynchronization.
For volumes that are part of the disk group that is automatically imported at boot
time (usually aliased as the reserved system-wide disk group, bootdg),
resynchronization takes place when the system reboots.
Not all volumes require resynchronization after a system failure. Volumes that were
never written or that were quiescent (that is, had no active I/O) when the system
failure occurred could not have had outstanding writes and do not require
resynchronization.
Dirty flags
VxVM records when a volume is first written to and marks it as dirty. When a volume
is closed by all processes or stopped cleanly by the administrator, and all writes
have been completed, VxVM removes the dirty flag for the volume. Only volumes
that are marked dirty require resynchronization.
Resynchronization process
The process of resynchronization depends on the type of volume. For mirrored
volumes, resynchronization is done by placing the volume in recovery mode (also
called read-writeback recovery mode). Resynchronization of data in the volume is
done in the background. This allows the volume to be available for use while
recovery is taking place. RAID-5 volumes that contain RAID-5 logs can replay
those logs. If no logs are available, the volume is placed in reconstruct-recovery
mode and all parity is regenerated.
77

Hot-relocation
Resynchronization can impact system performance. The recovery process reduces

some of this impact by spreading the recoveries to avoid stressing a specific disk
or controller.
For large volumes or for a large number of volumes, the resynchronization process
can take time. These effects can be minimized by using dirty region logging (DRL)
and FastResync (fast mirror resynchronization) for mirrored volumes, or by using
RAID-5 logs for RAID-5 volumes.
See Dirty region logging on page 78.
For mirrored volumes used by Oracle, you can use the SmartSync feature, which
further improves performance.
See SmartSync recovery accelerator on page 79.
Hot-relocation
Hot-relocation is a feature that allows a system to react automatically to I/O failures
on redundant objects (mirrored or RAID-5 volumes) in VxVM and restore redundancy
and access to those objects. VxVM detects I/O failures on objects and relocates
the affected subdisks. The subdisks are relocated to disks designated as spare
disks or to free space within the disk group. VxVM then reconstructs the objects
that existed before the failure and makes them accessible again.
When a partial disk failure occurs (that is, a failure affecting only some subdisks on
a disk), redundant data on the failed portion of the disk is relocated. Existing volumes
on the unaffected portions of the disk remain accessible.
See How hot-relocation works on page 544.

Dirty region logging (DRL), if enabled, speeds recovery of mirrored volumes after
a system crash. DRL tracks the regions that have changed due to I/O writes to a
mirrored volume. DRL uses this information to recover only those portions of the
volume.
If DRL is not used and a system failure occurs, all mirrors of the volumes must be
restored to a consistent state. Restoration is done by copying the full contents of
the volume between its mirrors. This process can be lengthy and I/O intensive.
Note: DRL adds a small I/O overhead for most write access patterns. This overhead
is reduced by using SmartSync.
78

If an instant snap DCO volume is associated with a volume, a portion of the DCO
volume can be used to store the DRL log. There is no need to create a separate
DRL log for a volume which has an instant snap DCO volume.
Log subdisks and plexes

DRL log subdisks store the dirty region log of a mirrored volume that has DRL
enabled. A volume with DRL has at least one log subdisk; multiple log subdisks
can be used to mirror the dirty region log. Each log subdisk is associated with one
plex of the volume. Only one log subdisk can exist per plex. If the plex contains
only a log subdisk and no data subdisks, that plex is referred to as a log plex.
The log subdisk can also be associated with a regular plex that contains data
subdisks. In that case, the log subdisk risks becoming unavailable if the plex must
be detached due to the failure of one of its data subdisks.
If the vxassist command is used to create a dirty region log, it creates a log plex
containing a single log subdisk by default. A dirty region log can also be set up
manually by creating a log subdisk and associating it with a plex. The plex then
contains both a log and data subdisks.
Sequential DRL
Some volumes, such as those that are used for database replay logs, are written
sequentially and do not benefit from delayed cleaning of the DRL bits. For these
volumes, sequential DRL can be used to limit the number of dirty regions. This
allows for faster recovery. However, if applied to volumes that are written to
randomly, sequential DRL can be a performance bottleneck as it limits the number
of parallel writes that can be carried out.
The maximum number of dirty regions allowed for sequential DRL is controlled by
a tunable as detailed in the description of voldrl_max_seq_dirty.
SmartSync recovery accelerator

The SmartSync feature of Veritas Volume Manager increases the availability of
mirrored volumes by only resynchronizing changed data. (The process of
resynchronizing mirrored databases is also sometimes referred to as resilvering.)
SmartSync reduces the time required to restore consistency, freeing more I/O
bandwidth for business-critical applications. SmartSync uses an extended interface
between VxVM volumes, VxFS file systems, and the Oracle database to avoid
unnecessary work during mirror resynchronization and to reduce the I/O overhead
of the DRL. For example, Oracle automatically takes advantage of SmartSync to
perform database resynchronization when it is available.
79

Note: To use SmartSync with volumes that contain file systems, see the discussion
of the Oracle Resilvering feature of Veritas File System (VxFS).
The following section describes how to configure VxVM raw volumes and SmartSync.
The database uses the following types of volumes:
Data volumes are the volumes used by the database (control files and tablespace
files).
Redo log volumes contain redo logs of the database.
SmartSync works with these two types of volumes differently, so they must be
configured as described in the following sections.
Data volume configuration

The recovery takes place when the database software is started, not at system
startup. This reduces the overall impact of recovery when the system reboots.
Because the recovery is controlled by the database, the recovery time for the volume
is the resilvering time for the database (that is, the time required to replay the redo
logs).
Because the database keeps its own logs, it is not necessary for VxVM to do logging.
Data volumes should be configured as mirrored volumes without dirty region logs.
In addition to improving recovery time, this avoids any run-time I/O overhead due
to DRL, and improves normal database write access.
Redo log volume configuration

A redo log is a log of changes to the database data. Because the database does
not maintain changes to the redo logs, it cannot provide information about which
sections require resilvering. Redo logs are also written sequentially, and since
traditional dirty region logs are most useful with randomly-written data, they are of
minimal use for reducing recovery time for redo logs. However, VxVM can reduce
the number of dirty regions by modifying the behavior of its dirty region logging
feature to take advantage of sequential access patterns. Sequential DRL decreases
the amount of data needing recovery and reduces recovery time impact on the
system.
The enhanced interfaces for redo logs allow the database software to inform VxVM
when a volume is to be used as a redo log. This allows VxVM to modify the DRL
behavior of the volume to take advantage of the access patterns. Since the improved
recovery time depends on dirty region logs, redo log volumes should be configured
as mirrored volumes with sequential DRL.
See Sequential DRL on page 79.
80

Volume snapshots
Volume snapshots
Veritas Volume Manager provides the capability for taking an image of a volume
at a given point in time. Such an image is referred to as a volume snapshot. Such
snapshots should not be confused with file system snapshots, which are point-in-time
images of a Veritas File System.
Figure 3-24 shows how a snapshot volume represents a copy of an original volume
at a given point in time.
Figure 3-24
Time
Volume snapshot as a point-in-time image of a volume
T1
Original volume
T2
Original volume
Snapshot volume
Snapshot volume is created

at time T2
T3
Original volume
Snapshot volume
Snapshot volume retains

image taken at time T2
T4
Original volume
Snapshot volume
Snapshot volume is updated

at time T4
Resynchronize snapshot volume

from the original volume
Even though the contents of the original volume can change, the snapshot volume
preserves the contents of the original volume as they existed at an earlier time.
The snapshot volume provides a stable and independent base for making backups
of the contents of the original volume, or for other applications such as decision
support. In the figure, the contents of the snapshot volume are eventually
resynchronized with the original volume at a later point in time.
Another possibility is to use the snapshot volume to restore the contents of the
original volume. This may be useful if the contents of the original volume have
become corrupted in some way.
Warning: If you write to the snapshot volume, it may no longer be suitable for use
in restoring the contents of the original volume.
81

Volume snapshots
One type of volume snapshot in VxVM is the third-mirror break-off type. This name
comes from its implementation where a snapshot plex (or third mirror) is added to
a mirrored volume. The contents of the snapshot plex are then synchronized from
the original plexes of the volume. When this synchronization is complete, the
snapshot plex can be detached as a snapshot volume for use in backup or decision
support applications. At a later time, the snapshot plex can be reattached to the
original volume, requiring a full resynchronization of the snapshot plexs contents.
The FastResync feature was introduced to track writes to the original volume. This
tracking means that only a partial, and therefore much faster, resynchronization is
required on reattaching the snapshot plex. In later releases, the snapshot model
was enhanced to allow snapshot volumes to contain more than a single plex,
reattachment of a subset of a snapshot volumes plexes, and persistence of
FastResync across system reboots or cluster restarts.
Release 4.0 of VxVM introduced full-sized instant snapshots and space-optimized
instant snapshots, which offer advantages over traditional third-mirror snapshots
such as immediate availability and easier configuration and administration. You
can also use the third-mirror break-off usage model with full-sized snapshots, where
this is necessary for write-intensive applications.
For information about how and when to use volume snapshots, see the Symantec
Storage Foundation and High Availability Solutions Solutions Guide.
Comparison of snapshot features

Table 3-2 compares the features of the various types of snapshots that are supported
in VxVM.
Table 3-2
Comparison of snapshot features for supported snapshot types
Snapshot feature
Full-sized
Space-optimized Break-off
instant (vxsnap) instant (vxsnap) (vxassist or
vxsnap)
Immediately available for use Yes

on creation
Yes
No
Requires less storage space No

than original volume
Yes
No
Can be reattached to original Yes

volume
No
Yes
82

FastResync
Table 3-2
Comparison of snapshot features for supported snapshot types

(continued)
Snapshot feature
Full-sized
Space-optimized Break-off
instant (vxsnap) instant (vxsnap) (vxassist or
vxsnap)
Can be used to restore

contents of original volume
Yes
Yes
Yes
Can quickly be refreshed

without being reattached
Yes
Yes
No
Snapshot hierarchy can be

split
Yes
No
No
Can be moved into separate Yes

disk group from original
volume
No
Yes
Can be turned into an

independent volume
Yes
No
Yes
FastResync ability persists

across system reboots or
cluster restarts
Yes
Yes
Yes
Synchronization can be
controlled
Yes
No
No
Can be moved off-host
Yes
No
Yes
Full-sized instant snapshots are easier to configure and offer more flexibility of use
than do traditional third-mirror break-off snapshots. For preference, new volumes
should be configured to use snapshots that have been created using the vxsnap
command rather than using the vxassist command. Legacy volumes can also be
reconfigured to use vxsnap snapshots, but this requires rewriting of administration
scripts that assume the vxassist snapshot model.
FastResync
Note: Only certain Storage Foundation and High Availability Solutions products
have a license to use this feature.
83

FastResync
The FastResync feature (previously called Fast Mirror Resynchronization or FMR)

performs quick and efficient resynchronization of stale mirrors (a mirror that is not
synchronized). This feature increases the efficiency of the Veritas Volume Manager
(VxVM) snapshot mechanism, and improves the performance of operations such
as backup and decision support applications. Typically, these operations require
that the volume is quiescent, and that they are not impeded by updates to the
volume by other activities on the system. To achieve these goals, the snapshot
mechanism in VxVM creates an exact copy of a primary volume at an instant in
time. After a snapshot is taken, it can be accessed independently of the volume
from which it was taken.
In a Cluster Volume Manager (CVM) environment with shared access to storage,
it is possible to eliminate the resource contention and performance overhead of
using a snapshot simply by accessing it from a different node.
How FastResync works

FastResync provides the following enhancements to VxVM:
Faster mirror resynchronization FastResync optimizes mirror resynchronization by keeping
track of updates to stored data that have been missed by
a mirror. (A mirror may be unavailable because it has been
detached from its volume, either automatically by VxVM
as the result of an error, or directly by an administrator
using a utility such as vxplex or vxassist. A returning
mirror is a mirror that was previously detached and is in
the process of being re-attached to its original volume as
the result of the vxrecover or vxplex att operation.)
When a mirror returns to service, only the updates that it
has missed need to be re-applied to resynchronize it. This
requires much less effort than the traditional method of
copying all the stored data to the returning mirror.
Once FastResync has been enabled on a volume, it does
not alter how you administer mirrors. The only visible effect
is that repair operations conclude more quickly.
See the vxplex(1M), vxassist(1M), and
vxrecover(1M) manual pages.
Re-use of snapshots
FastResync allows you to refresh and re-use snapshots

rather than discard them. You can quickly re-associate
(snap back) snapshot plexes with their original volumes.
This reduces the system overhead required to perform
cyclical operations such as backups that rely on the volume
snapshots.
84

FastResync
FastResync can be implemented in one of two ways:

Non-persistent FastResync
Non-persistent FastResync allocates its change maps in

memory. The maps do not reside on disk nor in persistent
store.
See How non-persistent FastResync works with
snapshots on page 85.
Persistent FastResync
Persistent FastResync keeps the FastResync maps on

disk so that they can survive system reboots, system
crashes and cluster crashes.
See How persistent FastResync works with snapshots
on page 86.
How non-persistent FastResync works with snapshots

If FastResync is enabled on a volume before a snapshot is taken, the snapshot
feature of VxVM uses FastResync change tracking to record updates to the original
volume after a snapshot plex is created. When the snapback option is used to
reattach the snapshot plex, the changes that FastResync recorded are used to
resynchronize the volume during the snapback. This behavior considerably reduces
the time needed to resynchronize the volume.
Non-persistent FastResync uses a map in memory to implement change tracking.
The map does not exist on disk or in persistent store. The advantage of
non-persistent FastResync is that updates to the FastResync map have little impact
on I/O performance, because no disk updates are performed. However, FastResync
must remain enabled until the snapshot is reattached, and the system cannot be
rebooted. If FastResync is disabled or the system is rebooted, the information in
the map is lost and a full resynchronization is required on snapback.
This limitation can be overcome for volumes in cluster-shareable disk groups,
provided that at least one of the nodes in the cluster remained running to preserve
the FastResync map in its memory. However, a node crash in a High Availability
(HA) environment requires the full resynchronization of a mirror when it is reattached
to its parent volume.
Each bit in the FastResync map represents a contiguous number of blocks in a
volumes address space. The default size of the map is 4 blocks. The kernel tunable
vol_fmr_logsz can be used to limit the maximum size in blocks of the map
For information about tuning VxVM, see the Symantec Storage Foundation and
High Availability Solutions Tuning Guide.
85

FastResync
How persistent FastResync works with snapshots

Persistent FastResync keeps the FastResync maps on disk so that they can survive
system reboots, system crashes, and cluster crashes. Persistent FastResync uses
a map in a data change object (DCO) volume on disk to implement change tracking.
Each bit in the map represents a contiguous number of blocks in a volumes address
space.
Persistent FastResync can also track the association between volumes and their
snapshot volumes after they are moved into different disk groups. When the disk
groups are rejoined, this allows the snapshot plexes to be quickly resynchronized.
This ability is not supported by non-persistent FastResync.
See Reorganizing the contents of disk groups on page 589.
When persistent FastResync is enabled on a volume or on a snapshot volume, a
data change object (DCO) and a DCO volume are associated with the volume.
See DCO volume versioning on page 89.
Figure 3-25 shows an example of a mirrored volume with two plexes on which
persistent FastResync is enabled.
Figure 3-25
Mirrored volume with persistent FastResync enabled
Mirrored volume
Data plex
Data plex
Data change object
DCO volume
DCO plex
DCO plex
Associated with the volume are a DCO object and a DCO volume with two plexes.
Create an instant snapshot by using the vxsnap make command, or create a
traditional third-mirror snapshot by using the vxassist snapstart command.
Figure 3-26 shows how a snapshot plex is set up in the volume, and how a disabled
DCO plex is associated with it.
86

FastResync
Figure 3-26
Mirrored volume after completion of a snapstart operation

Mirrored volume
Data plex
Data plex
Data plex
Data change object
DCO volume
Disabled
DCO plex
DCO plex
DCO plex
Multiple snapshot plexes and associated DCO plexes may be created in the volume
by re-running the vxassist snapstart command for traditional snapshots, or the
vxsnap make command for space-optimized snapshots. You can create up to a
total of 32 plexes (data and log) in a volume.
A traditional snapshot volume is created from a snapshot plex by running the
vxassist snapshot operation on the volume. For instant snapshots, however, the
vxsnap make command makes an instant snapshot volume immediately available
for use. There is no need to run an additional command.
Figure 3-27 shows how the creation of the snapshot volume also sets up a DCO
object and a DCO volume for the snapshot volume.
87

FastResync
Figure 3-27
Mirrored volume and snapshot volume after completion of a

snapshot operation
Mirrored volume
Data plex
Data plex
Data change object
Snap object
DCO volume
DCO
log plex
DCO
log plex
Snapshot volume
Data plex
Data change object
Snap object
DCO volume
DCO
log plex
The DCO volume contains the single DCO plex that was associated with the
snapshot plex. If two snapshot plexes were taken to form the snapshot volume, the
DCO volume would contain two plexes. For space-optimized instant snapshots,
the DCO object and DCO volume are associated with a snapshot volume that is
created on a cache object and not on a VxVM disk.
Associated with both the original volume and the snapshot volume are snap objects.
The snap object for the original volume points to the snapshot volume, and the
snap object for the snapshot volume points to the original volume. This allows VxVM
to track the relationship between volumes and their snapshots even if they are
moved into different disk groups.
The snap objects in the original volume and snapshot volume are automatically
deleted in the following circumstances:
For traditional snapshots, the vxassist snapback operation is run to return all
of the plexes of the snapshot volume to the original volume.
For traditional snapshots, the vxassist snapclear operation is run on a volume

to break the association between the original volume and the snapshot volume.
88

FastResync
If the volumes are in different disk groups, the command must be run separately
on each volume.
For full-sized instant snapshots, the vxsnap reattach operation is run to return
all of the plexes of the snapshot volume to the original volume.
For full-sized instant snapshots, the vxsnap dis or vxsnap split operations
are run on a volume to break the association between the original volume and
the snapshot volume. If the volumes are in different disk groups, the command
must be run separately on each volume.
Note: The vxsnap reattach, dis and split operations are not supported for
space-optimized instant snapshots.
DCO volume versioning

Persistent FastResync uses a data change object (DCO) and a DCO volume to
hold the FastResync maps.
This release of Veritas Volume Manager (VxVM) supports the following DCO volume
versions:
Instant snap DCO
volume layout
Previously known as Version 20 DCO volume layout, this version of

the DCO layout supports instant snapshots of volumes.
This type of DCO manages the FastResync maps, and also manages
DRL recovery maps and special maps called copymaps that allow
instant snapshot operations to resume correctly following a system
crash.
Version 0 DCO
volume layout
This version of the DCO volume layout only supports legacy snapshots
(vxassist snapshots). The DCO object manages information about the
FastResync maps. These maps track writes to the original volume and
to each of up to 32 snapshot volumes since the last snapshot
operation. Each plex of the DCO volume on disk holds 33 maps, each
of which is 4 blocks in size by default.
VxVM software continues to support the version 0 (zero) layout for
legacy volumes.
89

FastResync
Instant snap (version 20) DCO volume layout

The instant snap data change object (DCO) supports full-sized and space-optimized
instant snapshots. Traditional third-mirror volume snapshots that are administered
using the vxassist command are not supported with this DCO layout.
Introduced in Veritas Volume Manager (VxVM) 4.0, the instant snap DCO volume
layout is also known as a version 20 DCO volume layout. This type of DCO is used
not only to manage the FastResync maps, but also to manage DRL recovery maps
and special maps called copymaps that allow instant snapshot operations to resume
correctly following a system crash.
See Dirty region logging on page 78.
Each bit in a map represents a region (a contiguous number of blocks) in a volumes
address space. A region represents the smallest portion of a volume for which
changes are recorded in a map. A write to a single byte of storage anywhere within
a region is treated in the same way as a write to the entire region.
In Storage Foundation 6.0, the volume layout of an instant snap DCO has been
changed to improve the I/O performance and scalability of instant snapshots. The
change in layout does not alter how you administer instant snapshots. The only
visible affect is in improved I/O performance and in some cases, increased size of
a DCO volume.
The layout of an instant snap DCO volume uses dynamic creation of maps on the
preallocated storage. The size of the DRL (Dirty region logging) map does not
depend on volume size. You can configure the size of the DRL by using the option
drlmapsz while creating the DCO volume. By default, the size of the DRL is 1MB.
For CVM configurations, each node has a dedicated DRL map that gets allocated
during the first write on that node. By default, the size of the DCO volume
accommodates 32 DRL maps, an accumulator, and 16 per-volume maps (including
a DRL recovery map, a detach map to track detached plexes, and the remaining
14 maps for tracking snapshots).
The size of the DCO plex can be estimated using the following formula:
DCO_volume_size = (32*drlmapsize + acmsize + 16*per-volume_map_size)
where:
acmsize = (volume_size / (region_size*4))
per-volume_map_size = (volume_size/region_size*8)
drlmapsize = 1M, by default
90

FastResync
For a 100GB volume, the size of the DCO volume with the default regionsize of
64KB is approximately 36MB.
Create the DCOs for instant snapshots by using the vxsnap prepare command or
by specifying the options logtype=dco dcoversion=20 while creating a volume
with the vxassist make command.
Version 0 DCO volume layout

The version 0 DCO volume layout supports only traditional (third-mirror) volume
snapshots that are administered using the vxassist command. Full-sized and
space-optimized instant snapshots are not supported with this DCO layout.
The size of each map can be changed by specifying the dcolen attribute to the
vxassist command when the volume is created. The default value of dcolen is
132 blocks (the plex contains 33 maps, each of length 4 blocks). To use a larger
map size, multiply the desired map size by 33 to calculate the value of dcolen. For
example, to use an 8-block map, specify dcolen=264. The maximum possible map
size is 64 blocks, which corresponds to a dcolen value of 2112 blocks.
The size of a DCO plex is rounded up to the nearest integer multiple of the disk
group alignment value. The alignment value is 8KB for disk groups that support the
Cross-platform Data Sharing (CDS) feature. Otherwise, the alignment value is 1
block.
Effect of growing a volume on the FastResync map

It is possible to grow the replica volume, or the original volume, and still use
FastResync. According to the DCO volume layout, growing the volume has the
following different effects on the map that FastResync uses to track changes to the
original volume:
For an instant snap DCO volume, the size of the map is increased and the size
of the region that is tracked by each bit in the map stays the same.
For a version 0 DCO volume, the size of the map remains the same and the
region size is increased.
In either case, the part of the map that corresponds to the grown area of the volume
is marked as dirty so that this area is resynchronized. The snapback operation
fails if it attempts to create an incomplete snapshot plex. In such cases, you must
grow the replica volume, or the original volume, before invoking any of the
commands vxsnap reattach, vxsnap restore, or vxassist snapback. Growing
the two volumes separately can lead to a snapshot that shares physical disks with
another mirror in the volume. To prevent this, grow the volume after the snapback
command is complete.
91

FastResync
See the vxsnap(1M) and the vxassist(1M) manual pages.
FastResync limitations
The following limitations apply to FastResync:
Persistent FastResync is supported for RAID-5 volumes, but this prevents the
use of the relayout or resize operations on the volume while a DCO is associated
with it.
Neither non-persistent nor persistent FastResync can be used to resynchronize

mirrors after a system crash. Dirty region logging (DRL), which can coexist with
FastResync, should be used for this purpose. In VxVM 4.0 and later releases,
DRL logs may be stored in an instant snap DCO volume.
When a subdisk is relocated, the entire plex is marked dirty and a full
resynchronization becomes necessary.
If a snapshot volume is split off into another disk group, non-persistent

FastResync cannot be used to resynchronize the snapshot plexes with the
original volume when the disk group is rejoined with the original volumes disk
group. Persistent FastResync must be used for this purpose.
If you move or split an original volume (on which persistent FastResync is

enabled) into another disk group, and then move or join it to a snapshot volumes
disk group, you cannot use vxassist snapback to resynchronize traditional
snapshot plexes with the original volume. This restriction arises because a
snapshot volume references the original volume by its record ID at the time that
the snapshot volume was created. Moving the original volume to a different disk
group changes the volumes record ID, and so breaks the association. However,
in such a case, you can use the vxplex snapback command with the -f (force)
option to perform the snapback.
Note: This restriction only applies to traditional snapshots. It does not apply to
instant snapshots.
Any operation that changes the layout of a replica volume can mark the
FastResync change map for that snapshot dirty and require a full
resynchronization during snapback. Operations that cause this include subdisk
split, subdisk move, and online relayout of the replica. It is safe to perform these
operations after the snapshot is completed.
See the vxassist (1M) manual page.
See the vxplex (1M) manual page.
See the vxvol (1M) manual page.
92

Volume sets
Volume sets
Volume sets are an enhancement to Veritas Volume Manager (VxVM) that allow
several volumes to be represented by a single logical object. All I/O from and to
the underlying volumes is directed by way of the I/O interfaces of the volume set.
Veritas File System (VxFS) uses volume sets to manage multi-volume file systems
and the SmartTier feature. This feature allows VxFS to make best use of the different
performance and availability characteristics of the underlying volumes. For example,
file system metadata can be stored on volumes with higher redundancy, and user
data on volumes with better performance.
See Creating a volume set on page 452.

Advanced disk arrays provide methods to create copies of physical volumes (disks
or LUNs) from the hardware side.
You can create a hardware snapshot (such as an EMC BCV or Hitachi
ShadowImage), a hardware mirror, or a hardware clone. You can also use dd or
a similar command to clone the disk content.
If the physical volumes are VxVM disks, using a hardware copy method also copies
the configuration data stored in the private region of the VxVM managed disk. The
hardware disk copy becomes a duplicate of the original VxVM disk. For VxVM to
handle the duplicated disk images correctly, VxVM must distinguish between the
original and duplicate disk images.
VxVM detects that a disk is a hardware copy, to ensure that the duplicate disks are
not confused with the original disks. This functionality enables the server to import
a consistent set of disks. By default, VxVM imports the original physical volume but
VxVM also enables you to work with the hardware copies on the same server. VxVM
provides special options to import a disk group with the cloned images and make
a cloned disk group with a unique identity. With care, you can manage multiple sets
of hardware copies, even from the same server.
See Importing a disk group containing hardware cloned disks on page 637.
VxVM provides the following functionality to handle hardware copies:
93

Functionality
Description
Distinguishes between the hardware copy

and the original data disk.
VxVM discovers a unique disk identifier

(UDID) for each disk from the attributes of the
hardware disk and stores this value. VxVM
compares the discovered UDID to the stored
value to detect if a disk is a hardware copy.
Prevents inadvertent sharing over the SAN

of an original LUN and one or more of its
point-in time copies, mirrors, or replicated
copies.
By default, when you import a VxVM disk

group, VxVM prevents disks that are identified
as clones or copies from being imported. This
behavior prevents mistakenly importing a mix
of original disks and hardware copies.
Imports the hardware copies as a clone disk If you choose to import the hardware copies
group or as a new standard disk group.
of the disks of a VxVM disk group, VxVM
identifies the disks as clone disks. You can
choose whether to maintain the clone disk
status or create a new standard disk group.
Detects the LUN class of the array.
VxVM detects the extended attributes of the

array, including the LUN class. The LUN class
can help to identify which disks are hardware
copies of the VxVM disks.
Provides disk tagging to label and manage

sets of disks.
If you create multiple copies of the same set

of volumes, you as administrator need to
identify which disk copies make up a
consistent set of disks. You can use VxVM
disk tags to label the sets of disks. For
example, if you have multiple point in time
snapshots of the same LUN, you can label
each with a separate disk tag. Specify the tag
to the import operation to import the tagged
snapshot LUN.
How VxVM uses the unique disk identifier (UDID)

Veritas Volume Manager (VxVM) uses a unique disk identifier (UDID) to detect
hardware copies of the VxVM disks. Before using a physical volume, VxVM always
verifies whether the disk already has a UDID and whether that UDID matches the
expected value.
When you initialize a VxVM disk, the Device Discovery Layer (DDL) of VxVM
determines the UDID from hardware attributes such as the vendor ID (vid), the
product ID (pid), the cabinet serial number, and the LUN serial number. VxVM
stores the UDID in the private region of the disk when VxVM first sees a disk that
94

does not have a UDID, or when VxVM initializes the disk. The exact make-up of
the UDID depends on the array storage library (ASL). Future versions of VxVM may
use different formats for new arrays.
When VxVM discovers a disk with a UDID, VxVM compares the current UDID value
(the value determined from the hardware attributes) to the UDID that is already
stored on the disk. If the UDID values do not match between the UDID value
determined by the DDL and the on-disk UDID, VxVM sets the udid_mismatch flag
for the disk.
The udid_mismatch flag generally indicates that the disk is a hardware copy of a
VxVM disk. The hardware copy has a copy of the VxVM private region of the original
disk, including the UDID. The UDID already stored in the VxVM private region
matches the attributes of the original hardware disk, but does not match the value
on the hardware disk that is the copy.
With the UDID matching feature, VxVM can prevent the situation where the
inconsistent set of disks is presented to the host. This functionality enables you to
import a disk group composed of LUN snapshots on the same host as the original
LUNs. When you import the disks identified with the udid_mismatch flag, VxVM
sets the clone_disk flag on the disk. With care, multiple hardware images of the
original LUN can be simultaneously managed and imported on the same host as
the original LUN.
See Importing a disk group containing hardware cloned disks on page 637.
If a system only sees the copy (or clone) devices, you can remove the clone_disk
flags. Only remove the clone_disk flags if you are sure there is no risk. For example,
you must make sure that there are not two physical volumes that are copies of the
same base physical volume at different times.
If the udid_mismatch flag is set incorrectly on a disk that is not a clone disk, you
can remove the udid_mismatch flag and treat the disk as a standard disk.
See the Storage Foundation and High Availability Solutions Troubleshooting Guide.
95
Chapter
How Veritas File System

works
Veritas File System features
Veritas File System performance enhancements
Using Veritas File System

Table 4-1 lists the Veritas File System (VxFS) features.
How Veritas File System works

Table 4-1
Feature
Description
Cluster file systems
Symantec Storage Foundation Cluster File System High

Availability (SFCFSHA) allows clustered servers to mount and
use a file system simultaneously as if all applications using the
file system were running on the same server. The Veritas
Volume Manager cluster functionality (CVM) makes logical
volumes and raw device applications accessible through a
cluster.
SFCFSHA uses a symmetric architecture in which all nodes in
the cluster can simultaneously function as metadata servers.
SFCFSHA still has some remnants of the old master/slave or
primary/secondary concept. The first server to mount each
cluster file system becomes its primary; all other nodes in the
cluster become secondaries. Applications access the user data
in files directly from the server on which they are running. Each
SFCFSHA node has its own intent log. File system operations,
such as allocating or deleting files, can originate from any node
in the cluster.
In some environments that use shared disk groups with Flexible
Storage Sharing feature turned on, the data may be fetched
from other nodes using CVM I/O Shipping.
Installing VxFS and enabling the cluster feature does not create
a cluster file system configuration. File system clustering
requires other Veritas products to enable communication
services and provide storage resources. These products are
packaged with VxFS in SFCFSHA to provide a complete
clustering environment.
See the Symantec Storage Foundation Cluster File System
High Availability Administrator's Guide.
To be a cluster mount, a file system must be mounted using
the mount -o cluster option. File systems mounted without
the -o cluster option are termed local mounts.
See the mount_vxfs(1M) manual page.
SFCFSHA functionality is separately licensed.
97

Table 4-1
Veritas File System features (continued)
Feature
Description
Cross-platform data
sharing
Cross-platform data sharing (CDS) allows data to be serially

shared among heterogeneous systems where each system has
direct access to the physical devices that hold the data. This
feature can be used only in conjunction with Veritas Volume
Manager (VxVM).
See the Symantec Storage Foundation and High Availability
Solutions Solutions Guide.
Data deduplication
You can perform post-process periodic deduplication in a file

system to eliminate duplicate data without any continuous cost.
You can verify whether data is duplicated on demand, and then
efficiently and securely eliminate the duplicates. This feature
requires an Enterprise license.
See About deduplicating data on page 560.
Defragmentation
You can perform defragmentation to remove unused space from

directories, make all small files contiguous, and consolidate free
blocks for file system use.
See About defragmentation on page 108.
Enhanced data integrity

modes
VxFS has the following mount command options to enable the

enhanced data integrity modes:
blkclear
See blkclear mount option on page 161.

closesync
See mincache mount option on page 161.

log
See log mount option on page 159.
Enhanced performance
mode
The default VxFS logging mode, mount -o delaylog,

increases performance by delaying the logging of some
structural changes. However, delaylog does not provide the
equivalent data integrity as the enhanced data integrity modes
because recent changes may be lost during a system failure.
This option provides at least the same level of data accuracy
that traditional UNIX file systems provide for system failures,
along with fast file system recovery.
See delaylog mount option on page 159.
98

Table 4-1
Feature
Description
Extent attributes
VxFS allocates disk space to files in groups of one or more

adjacent blocks called extents. VxFS defines an application
interface that allows programs to control various aspects of the
extent allocation for a given file. The extent allocation policies
associated with a file are referred to as extent attributes.
See About extent attributes on page 177.
Extent-based allocation
An extent is a contiguous area of storage in a computer file

system, reserved for a file. When starting to write to a file, a
whole extent is allocated. When writing to the file again, the
data continues where the previous write left off. This reduces
or eliminates file fragmentation. An extent is presented as an
address-length pair, which identifies the starting block address
and the length of the extent (in file system or logical blocks).
Since VxFS is an extent-based file system, addressing is done
through extents (which can consist of multiple blocks) rather
than in single-block segments. Extents can therefore enhance
file system throughput.
See About extents on page 30.
Extended mount options
The VxFS file system provides the following enhancements to

the mount command:
Enhanced data integrity modes
Enhanced performance mode
Temporary file system mode
Improved synchronous writes
Support for large file sizes
See Mounting a VxFS file system on page 157.

Fast file system recovery
Most file systems rely on full structural verification by the fsck

utility as the only means to recover from a system failure. For
large disk configurations, this involves a time-consuming process
of checking the entire structure, verifying that the file system is
intact, and correcting any inconsistencies. VxFS provides fast
recovery with the VxFS intent log and VxFS intent log resizing
features.
See About the Veritas File System intent log on page 29.
99

Table 4-1
Feature
Description
File Change Log
The VxFS File Change Log (FCL) tracks changes to files and
directories in a file system. The File Change Log can be used
by applications such as backup products, webcrawlers, search
and indexing engines, and replication software that typically
scan an entire file system searching for modifications since a
previous scan. FCL functionality is a separately licensed feature.
See About Veritas File System File Change Log on page 709.
File compression
Compressing files reduces the space used by files, while

retaining the accessibility of the files and being transparent to
applications. Compressed files look and behave almost exactly
like uncompressed files: the compressed files have the same
name, and can be read and written as with uncompressed files.
Reads cause data to be uncompressed in memory, only; the
on-disk copy of the file remains compressed. In contrast, after
a write, the new data is uncompressed on disk.
See About compressing files on page 572.
File replication
You can perform cost-effective periodic replication of data over

IP networks, giving organizations an extremely flexibile storage
independent data availability solution for disaster recovery and
off-host processing.
See the Symantec Storage Foundation and High Availability
Solutions Replication Administrator's Guide.
File system snapshots
VxFS provides online data backup using the snapshot feature.

An image of a mounted file system instantly becomes an exact
read-only copy of the file system at a specific point in time. The
original file system is called the snapped file system, while the
copy is called the snapshot.
When changes are made to the snapped file system, the old
data is copied to the snapshot. When the snapshot is read, data
that has not changed is read from the snapped file system,
changed data is read from the snapshot.
Backups require one of the following methods:
Copying selected files from the snapshot file system (using

find and cpio)
Backing up the entire file system (using fscat)
Initiating a full or incremental backup (using vxdump)
See About snapshot file systems on page 327.
100

Table 4-1
Feature
Description
FileSnaps
A FileSnap is a space-optimized copy of a file in the same name

space, stored in the same file system. VxFS supports FileSnaps
on file systems with disk layout Version 8 or later.
See About FileSnaps on page 324.
Freezing and thawing file

systems
Freezing a file system is a necessary step for obtaining a stable

and consistent image of the file system at the volume level.
Consistent volume-level file system images can be obtained
and used with a file system snapshot tool.
See Freezing and thawing a file system on page 294.
Improved synchronous
writes
VxFS provides superior performance for synchronous write

applications. The mount -o datainlog option greatly
improves the performance of small synchronous writes.
The mount -o convosync=dsync option improves the
performance of applications that require synchronous data writes
but not synchronous inode time updates.
Warning: The use of the -o convosync=dsync option

violates POSIX semantics.
See convosync mount option on page 162.
101

Table 4-1
102
Feature
Description
maxlink support
Added support for more than 64K sub-directories. If maxlink

is disabled on a file system, the sub-directory limit will be 32K
by default. If maxlink is enabled on a file system, this allows
you to create up to 4294967295(2^32 1) sub-directories.
By default maxlink is enabled.
To enable the maxlink option at mkfs time. For example:
# mkfs -t vxfs -o maxlink /dev/vx/rdsk/testdg/vol1
To disable the maxlink option at mkfs time. For example:
# mkfs -t vxfs -o nomaxlink /dev/vx/rdsk/testdg/vol1
To enable the maxlink option through the fsadm command
on a mounted files system. For example:
# fsadm -t vxfs -o maxlink /mnt1
To disable the maxlink option through the fsadm command
on a mounted file system. For example:
# fsadm -t vxfs -o nomaxlink /mnt1
See the mkfs_vxfs(1M) and fsadm_vxfs(1M) manual pages.
Multi-volume file systems
The multi-volume file system (MVFS) feature allows several

volumes to be represented by a single logical object. All I/O to
and from an underlying logical volume is directed by way of
volume sets. You can create a single VxFS file system on this
multi-volume set. This feature can be used only in conjunction
with VxVM. MVFS functionality is a separately licensed feature.
See About multi-volume file systems on page 459.

Table 4-1
Feature
Description
Partitioned directories
Normally, a large volume of parallel threads performing access

and updates on a directory that commonly exist in a file system
suffers from exponentially longer wait times for the threads. This
feature creates partitioned directories to improve the directory
performance of file systems. When any directory crosses the
tunable threshold, this feature takes an exclusive lock on the
directory inode and redistributes the entries into various
respective hash directories. These hash directories are not
visible in the name-space view of the user or operating system.
For every new create, delete, or lookup thread, this feature
performs a lookup for the respective hashed directory
(depending on the target name) and performs the operation in
that directory. This leaves the parent directory inode and its
other hash directories unobstructed for access, which vastly
improves file system performance.
This feature operates only on disk layout Version 8 or later file
systems.
See Partitioned directories on page 722.
See the vxtunefs(1M) and fsadm_vxfs(1M) manual pages.
Quotas
VxFS supports quotas, which allocate per-user and per-group

quotas and limit the use of two principal resources: files and
data blocks. You can assign quotas for each of these resources.
Each quota consists of two limits for each resource: hard limit
and soft limit.
The hard limit represents an absolute limit on data blocks or
files. A user can never exceed the hard limit under any
circumstances.
The soft limit is lower than the hard limit and can be exceeded
for a limited amount of time. This allows users to exceed limits
temporarily as long as they fall under those limits before the
allotted time expires.
See About Veritas File System quota limits on page 701.
103

Table 4-1
Feature
Description
Reverse path name lookup The reverse path name lookup feature obtains the full path
name of a file or directory from the inode number of that file or
directory. The reverse path name lookup feature can be useful
for a variety of applications, such as for clients of the VxFS File
Change Log feature, in backup and restore utilities, and for
replication products. Typically, these applications store
information by inode numbers because a path name for a file
or directory can be very long, thus the need for an easy method
of obtaining a path name.
See About reverse path name lookup on page 718.
SmartTier
The SmartTier option is built on multi-volume support

technology. Using SmartTier, you can map more than one
volume to a single file system. You can then configure policies
that automatically relocate files from one volume to another, or
relocate files by running file relocation commands. Having
multiple volumes lets you determine where files are located,
which can improve performance for applications that access
specific types of files. SmartTier functionality is a separately
licensed feature.
Note: In the previous VxFS 5.x releases, SmartTier was known

as Dynamic Storage Tiering.
See About SmartTier on page 474.
Storage Checkpoints
To increase availability, recoverability, and performance, VxFS

offers on-disk and online backup and restore capabilities that
facilitate frequent and efficient backup strategies. Backup and
restore applications can leverage a Storage Checkpoint, a diskand I/O-efficient copying technology for creating periodic frozen
images of a file system. Storage Checkpoints present a view
of a file system at a point in time, and subsequently identifies
and maintains copies of the original file system blocks. Instead
of using a disk-based mirroring method, Storage Checkpoints
save disk space and significantly reduce I/O overhead by using
the free space pool available to a file system.
Storage Checkpoint functionality is separately licensed.
See About Storage Checkpoints on page 385.
104

Table 4-1
Feature
Description
Support for large files and VxFS supports files larger than two gigabytes and large file
large file systems
systems up to 256 terabytes.
Warning: Some applications and utilities might not work on

large files.
See largefiles and nolargefiles mount options on page 165.
Temporary file system
mode
On most UNIX systems, temporary file system directories, such

as /tmp and /usr/tmp, often hold files that do not need to be
retained when the system reboots. The underlying file system
does not need to maintain a high degree of structural integrity
for these temporary directories. VxFS provides the mount -o
tmplog option, which allows the user to achieve higher
performance on temporary file systems by delaying the logging
of most operations.
See tmplog mount option on page 160.
Thin Reclamation
The Thin Reclamation feature allows you to release free data

blocks of a VxFS file system to the free storage pool of a Thin
Storage LUN. This feature is only supported on file systems
created on a VxVM volume.
See About Thin Reclamation of a file system on page 431.

Traditional file systems employ block-based allocation schemes that provide
adequate random access and latency for small files, but which limit throughput for
larger files. As a result, they are less than optimal for commercial environments.
Veritas File System (VxFS) addresses this file system performance issue through
an alternative allocation method and increased user control over allocation, I/O,
and caching policies.
See Using Veritas File System on page 108.
VxFS provides the following performance enhancements:
Data synchronous I/O

See Data synchronous I/O on page 292.
Direct I/O and discovered direct I/O

See Direct I/O on page 291.
105

See Discovered Direct I/O on page 292.
Delayed allocation for extending writes

See Delayed allocation for extending writes on page 107.
Enhanced I/O performance

See Enhanced I/O performance on page 106.
Caching advisories
See Cache advisories on page 294.
Enhanced directory features
Explicit file alignment, extent size, and preallocation controls

See Extent attribute alignment on page 180.
See Fixed extent size on page 178.
See Reservation: preallocating space to a file on page 178.
Tunable I/O parameters

See Tuning the VxFS file system on page 720.
Integration with Veritas Volume Manager (VxVM)

See About Veritas Volume Manager on page 28.
Support for large directories

See the vx_dexh_sz(5) manual page.
Note: VxFS reduces the file lookup time in directories with an extremely large
number of files.
See the vxtunefs(1M) and fsadm_vxfs(1M) manual pages.
Enhanced I/O performance

Veritas File System (VxFS) provides enhanced I/O performance by applying an
aggressive I/O clustering policy, integrating with Veritas Volume Manager (VxVM),
and allowing application-specific parameters to be set on a per-file system basis.
See Enhanced I/O clustering on page 107.
See Veritas Volume Manager integration with Veritas File System for enhanced
I/O performance on page 107.
See Application-specific parameters for enhanced I/O performance on page 107.
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Enhanced I/O clustering

I/O clustering is a technique of grouping multiple I/O operations together for improved
performance. Veritas File System (VxFS) I/O policies provide more aggressive
clustering processes than other file systems and offer higher I/O throughput when
using large files. The resulting performance is comparable to that provided by raw
disk.
Veritas Volume Manager integration with Veritas File System

for enhanced I/O performance
Veritas File System (VxFS) interfaces with Veritas Volume Manager (VxVM) to
determine the I/O characteristics of the underlying volume and perform I/O
accordingly. VxFS also uses this information when using mkfs to perform proper
allocation unit alignments for efficient I/O operations from the kernel.
As part of VxFS/VxVM integration, VxVM exports a set of I/O parameters to achieve
better I/O performance. This interface can enhance performance for different volume
configurations such as RAID-5, striped, and mirrored volumes. Full stripe writes
are important in a RAID-5 volume for strong I/O performance. VxFS uses these
parameters to issue appropriate I/O requests to VxVM.
Application-specific parameters for enhanced I/O performance

You can set application specific parameters on a per-file system basis to improve
I/O performance.
Discovered Direct I/O

All sizes above this value would be performed as direct I/O.
Maximum Direct I/O Size

This value defines the maximum size of a single direct I/O.
See the vxtunefs(1M) and tunefstab(4) manual pages.
Delayed allocation for extending writes

Delayed allocation skips the allocations for extending writes and completes the
allocations in a background thread. With this approach, Veritas File System (VxFS)
performs a smaller number of large allocations instead of performing a large number
of small allocations, which reduces the file systems fragmentation. Fast-moving
temporary files do not have blocks allocated and thus do not add to the file systems
fragmentation.
When a file is appended, the allocation to the file is skipped and the file is added
to the delayed allocation list. The range for which the allocation is skipped is recorded
in the inode. The write() system call returns immediately after the user pages are
107

copied to the page cache. The actual allocations to the file occur when the scheduler
thread picks the file for allocation. If the file is truncated or removed, allocations are
not required.
Delayed allocation is turned on by default for extending writes. Delayed allocation
is not dependent on the file system disk layout version. This feature does not require
any mount options. You can turn off and turn on this feature by using the vxtunefs
command. You can display the delayed allocation range in the file by using the
fsmap command.
See the vxtunefs(1M) and fsmap(1M) manual pages.
For instances where the file data must be written to the disk immediately, delayed
allocation is disabled on the file. The following are the examples of such instances:
direct I/O, concurrent I/O, FDD/ODM access, and synchronous I/O. Delayed
allocation is not supported on memory-mapped files, BSD quotas, and shared mount
points in a Cluster File System (CFS). When BSD quotas are enabled on a file
system, delayed allocation is turned off automatically for that file system.

The following list contains the main methods to use, manage, modify, and tune
VxFS:
Online system administration
Application program interface
Online system administration

Veritas File System (VxFS) provides command line interface (CLI) operations that
are described throughout this guide and in manual pages.
VxFS allows you to run a number of administration tasks while the file system is
online. Two of the more important tasks include:
About defragmentation
About file system resizing
About defragmentation
Free resources are initially aligned and allocated to files in an order that provides
optimal performance. On an active file system, the original order of free resources
is lost over time as files are created, removed, and resized. The file system is spread
farther along the disk, leaving unused gaps or fragments between areas that are
in use. This process is known as fragmentation and leads to degraded performance
108

because the file system has fewer options when assigning a free extent to a file (a
group of contiguous data blocks).
VxFS provides the online administration utility fsadm to resolve the problem of
fragmentation.
The fsadm utility defragments a mounted file system by performing the following
actions:
Removing unused space from directories
Making all small files contiguous
Consolidating free blocks for file system use
This utility can run on demand and should be scheduled regularly as a cron job.
About file system resizing

A file system is assigned a specific size as soon as it is created; the file system
may become too small or too large as changes in file system usage take place over
time.
VxFS is capable of increasing or decreasing the file system size while in use. Many
competing file systems can not do this. The VxFS utility fsadm can expand or shrink
a file system without unmounting the file system or interrupting user productivity.
However, to expand a file system, the underlying device on which it is mounted
must be expandable.
VxVM facilitates expansion using virtual disks that can be increased in size while
in use. The VxFS and VxVM components complement each other to provide online
expansion capability. Use the vxresize command when resizing both the volume
and the file system. The vxresize command guarantees that the file system shrinks
or grows along with the volume. You can also use the the vxassist command
combined with the fsadm_vxfs command for this purpose; however, Symantec
recommends that you use the vxresize command instead.
See the vxresize(1M) manual page.
See Growing the existing storage by adding a new LUN on page 113.
Application program interface

Veritas File System Developer's Kit (SDK) provides developers with the information
necessary to use the application programming interfaces (APIs) to modify and tune
various features and components of Veritas File System (VxFS).
See the Veritas File System Programmer's Reference Guide.
109

VxFS conforms to the System V Interface Definition (SVID) requirements and

supports user access through the Network File System (NFS). Applications that
require performance features not available with other file systems can take
advantage of VxFS enhancements.
Expanded application facilities

Veritas File System (VxFS) provides API functions frequently associated with
commercial applications that make it possible to perform the following actions:
Preallocate space for a file
Specify a fixed extent size for a file
Bypass the system buffer cache for file I/O
Specify the expected access pattern for a file
Because these functions are provided using VxFS-specific IOCTL system calls,
most existing UNIX system applications do not use them. For portability reasons,
these applications must check which file system type they are using before using
these functions.
110
Section
Provisioning storage
Chapter 5. Provisioning new storage
Chapter 6. Advanced allocation methods for configuring storage
Chapter 7. Creating and mounting VxFS file systems
Chapter 8. Extent attributes
Chapter
Provisioning new storage

Growing the existing storage by adding a new LUN
Growing the existing storage by growing the LUN
Displaying SF information with vxlist

The following procedure describes how to provision new storage. If you are
provisioning Storage Foundation on thin storage, you should understand how
Storage Foundation works with thin storage.
See About thin optimization solutions in Storage Foundation on page 419.
The procedure assumes a basic configuration for volumes and file systems. More
options are available to customize your configuration.
See Customizing allocation behavior on page 115.
See Creating a VxFS file system on page 153.
To provision new storage
Set up the LUN. See the documentation for your storage array for information
about how to create, mask, and bind the LUN.
Initialize the LUNs for Veritas Volume Manager (VxVM), using one of the
following commands.
The recommended method is to use the vxdisksetup command.
# vxdisksetup -i 3PARDATA0_1
# vxdisk init 3PARDATA0_1

Add the LUN to a disk group.
If you do not have a disk group for your LUN, create the disk group:
# vxdg init dg1 dev1=3PARDATA0_1
If you already have a disk group for your LUN, add the LUN to the disk
group:
# vxdg -g dg1 adddisk 3PARDATA0_1
Create the volume on the LUN:

# vxassist -b -g dg1 make vol1 100g 3PARDATA0_1
Create a Veritas File System (VxFS) file system on the volume:

# mkfs -t vxfs /dev/vx/rdsk/dg1/vol1
Create a mount point on the file system:

# mkdir /mount1
Mount the file system:

# mount -t vxfs /dev/vx/dsk/dg1/vol1 /mount1

The following procedure describes how to grow the existing storage by adding a
new LUN.
To grow the existing storage by adding a new LUN
Create and set up the LUN.
Add the LUN to the disk group.

# vxdg -g dg1 adddisk 3PARDATA0_2
Grow the volume and the file system to the desired size. For example:
# vxresize -b -F vxfs -g dg1 vol1 200g
113


The following procedure describes how to grow the existing storage by growing a
LUN.
To grow the existing storage by growing a LUN
Grow the existing LUN. See the documentation for your storage array for
information about how to create, mask, and bind the LUN.
Make Veritas Volume Manager (VxVM) aware of the new LUN size.
# vxdisk -g dg1 resize 3PARDATA0_1
See Dynamic LUN expansion on page 256.
Calculate the new maximum volume size:

# vxassist -g dg1 -b maxgrow vol1
Grow the volume and the file system to the desired size:
# vxresize -b -F vxfs -g dg1 vol1 200g
Displaying SF information with vxlist

The vxlist command is a display command that provides a consolidated view of
the SF configuration. The vxlist command consolidates information from Veritas
Volume Manager (VxVM) and Veritas File System (VxFS). The vxlist command
provides various options to display information. For example, use the following form
of the command to display file system information including information about the
volume, disk group, and so on. In previous releases, you needed to run at least two
commands to retrieve the following information.
# /opt/VRTSsfmh/bin/vxlist fs
TY FS FSTYPE SIZE
FREE
%USED DEVICE_PATH
MOUNT_POINT
fs /
ext3
65.20g 51.70g 17%
/dev/sda1
/
fs mnt vxfs
19.84g 9.96g 49%
/dev/vx/dsk/bardg/vol1 /mnt
For help on the vxlist command, enter the following command:

# vxlist -H
See the vxlist(1m) manual page.
114
Chapter
Advanced allocation
methods for configuring
storage
Customizing allocation behavior
Creating volumes of a specific layout
Creating a volume on specific disks
Creating volumes on specific media types
Specifying ordered allocation of storage to volumes
Site-based allocation
Changing the read policy for mirrored volumes

By default, the vxassist command creates volumes on any available storage that
meets basic requirements. The vxassist command seeks out available disk space
and allocates it in the configuration that conforms to the layout specifications and
that offers the best use of free space. The vxassist command creates the required
plexes and subdisks using only the basic attributes of the desired volume as input.
If you are provisioning Storage Foundation on thin storage, you should understand
how Storage Foundation works with thin storage.
See About thin optimization solutions in Storage Foundation on page 419.
Advanced allocation methods for configuring storage

Additionally, when you modify existing volumes using the vxassist command, the
vxassist command automatically modifies underlying or associated objects. The
vxassist command uses default values for many volume attributes, unless you
provide specific values to the command line. You can customize the default behavior
of the vxassist command by customizing the default values.
See Setting default values for vxassist on page 117.
The vxassist command creates volumes in a default disk group according to the
default rules. To use a different disk group, specify the -g diskgroup option to the
vxassist command.
See Rules for determining the default disk group on page 585.
If you want to assign particular characteristics for a certain volume, you can specify
additional attributes on the vxassist command line. These can be storage
specifications to select certain types of disks for allocation, or other attributes such
as the stripe unit width, number of columns in a RAID-5 or stripe volume, number
of mirrors, number of logs, and log type.
For details of available vxassist keywords and attributes, refer to the vxassist(1M)
manual page.
You can use allocation attributes to specify the types of allocation behavior shown
in Table 6-1
Table 6-1
Types of allocation behavior
Allocation behavior
Procedures
Layouts for the volumes
See Creating volumes of a specific layout

on page 138.
Media types
See Creating volumes on specific media

types on page 147.
Specific disks, subdisks, plexes locations
See Creating a volume on specific disks

on page 146.
Ordered allocation
See Specifying ordered allocation of storage

to volumes on page 147.
See Site-based allocation on page 151.
Setting the read policy
See Changing the read policy for mirrored

volumes on page 151.
The vxassist utility also provides various constructs to help define and manage
volume allocations, with efficiency and flexibility.
116

See Setting default values for vxassist on page 117.

See Using rules to make volume allocation more efficient on page 118.
See Understanding persistent attributes on page 121.
See Customizing disk classes for allocation on page 124.
See Specifying allocation constraints for vxassist operations with the use clause
and the require clause on page 126.
See Management of the use and require type of persistent attributes on page 134.
Setting default values for vxassist

The default values that the vxassist command uses may be specified in the file
/etc/default/vxassist. The defaults listed in this file take effect if you do not
override them on the command line, or in an alternate defaults file that you specify
using the -d option. A default value specified on the command line always takes
precedence. vxassist also has a set of built-in defaults that it uses if it cannot find
a value defined elsewhere.
You must create the /etc/default directory and the vxassist default file if these
do not already exist on your system.
The format of entries in a defaults file is a list of attribute-value pairs separated by
new lines. These attribute-value pairs are the same as those specified as options
on the vxassist command line.
To display the default attributes held in the file /etc/default/vxassist, use the
following form of the vxassist command:
# vxassist help showattrs
The following is a sample vxassist defaults file:

#
#
#
#
#
By default:
create unmirrored, unstriped volumes
allow allocations to span drives
with RAID-5 create a log, with mirroring dont create a log
align allocations on cylinder boundaries
layout=nomirror,nostripe,span,nocontig,raid5log,noregionlog,
diskalign
use the fsgen usage type, except when creating RAID-5 volumes
usetype=fsgen
allow only root access to a volume
117

118
mode=u=rw,g=,o=
user=root
group=root
#
#
#
when mirroring, create two mirrors

nmirror=2
for regular striping, by default create between 2 and 8 stripe
columns
max_nstripe=8
min_nstripe=2
for RAID-5, by default create between 3 and 8 stripe columns

max_nraid5stripe=8
min_nraid5stripe=3
by default, create 1 log copy for both mirroring and RAID-5 volumes
nregionlog=1
nraid5log=1
by default, limit mirroring log lengths to 32Kbytes

max_regionloglen=32k
use 64K as the default stripe unit size for regular volumes
stripe_stwid=64k
use 16K as the default stripe unit size for RAID-5 volumes
raid5_stwid=16k
Using rules to make volume allocation more efficient

The vxassist command lets you create a set of volume allocation rules and define
it with a single name. When you specify this name in your volume allocation request,
all the attributes that are defined in this rule are honored when vxassist creates
the volume.
Creating volume allocation rules has the following benefits:
Rules streamline your typing and reduce errors. You can define relatively complex
allocation rules once in a single location and reuse them.
Rules let you standardize behaviors in your environment, including across a set
of servers.
For example, you can create allocation rules so that a set of servers can standardize
their storage tiering. Suppose you had the following requirements:

Tier 1
Enclosure mirroring between a specific set of array types
Tier 2
Non-mirrored striping between a specific set of array types
Tier 0
Select solid-state drive (SSD) storage
You can create rules for each volume allocation requirement and name the rules
tier1, tier2, and tier0.
You can also define rules so that each time you create a volume for a particular
purpose, the volume is created with the same attributes. For example, to create
the volume for a production database, you can create a rule called productiondb.
To create standardized volumes for home directories, you can create a rule called
homedir. To standardize your high performance index volumes, you can create a
rule called dbindex.
Rule file format

When you create rules, you do not define them in the /etc/default/vxassist file.
You create the rules in another file and add the path information to
/etc/default/vxassist. By default, a rule file is loaded from
/etc/default/vxsf_rules. You can override this location in
/etc/default/vxassist with the attribute rulefile=/path/rule_file_name. You
can also specify additional rule files on the command line.
A rule file uses the following conventions:
Blank lines are ignored.
Use the pound sign, #, to begin a comment.
Use C language style quoting for the strings that may include embedded spaces,
new lines, or tabs. For example, use quotes around the text for the description
attribute.
Separate tokens with a space.
Use braces for a rule that is longer than one line.
Within the rule file, a volume allocation rule has the following format:
volume rule rulename vxassist_attributes
This syntax defines a rule named rulename which is a short-hand for the listed
vxassist attributes. Rules can reference other rules using an attribute of
rule=rulename[,rulename,...], which adds all the attributes from that rule into
the rule currently being defined. The attributes you specify in a rule definition override
any conflicting attributes that are in a rule that you specify by reference. You can
add a description to a rule with the attribute description=description_text.
119

The following is a basic rule file. The first rule in the file, base, defines the logtype
and persist attributes. The remaining rules in the file tier0, tier1, and tier2
reference this rule and also define their own tier-specific attributes. Referencing a
rule lets you define attributes in one place and reuse them in other rules.
# Create tier 1 volumes mirrored between disk arrays, tier 0 on SSD,
# and tier 2 as unmirrored. Always use FMR DCO objects.
volume rule base { logtype=dco persist=yes }
volume rule tier0 { rule=base mediatype:ssd tier=tier0 }
volume rule tier1 { rule=base mirror=enclosure tier=tier1 }
volume rule tier2 { rule=base tier=tier2 }
The following rule file contains a more complex definition that runs across several
lines.
volume rule appXdb_storage {
description="Create storage for the database of Application X"
rule=base
siteconsistent=yes
mirror=enclosure
}
Using rules to create a volume

When you use the vxassist command to create a volume, you can include the
rule name on the command line. For example, the content of the vxsf_rules file
is as follows:
volume rule basic { logtype=dco }
volume rule tier1 {
rule=basic
layout=mirror
tier=tier1
}
In the following example, when you create the volume vol1 in disk group dg3, you
can specify the tier1 rule on the command line. In addition to the attributes you
enter on the command line, vol1 is given the attributes that you defined in tier1.
vxassist -g dg3 make vol1 200m rule=tier1
The following vxprint command displays the attributes of disk group dg3. The
output includes the new volume, vol1.
120

vxprint -g dg3
TY NAME
dg dg3
ASSOC
dg3
KSTATE
-
LENGTH
-
STATE
-
TUTIL0
-
PUTIL0
-
dm ibm_ds8x000_0266 ibm_ds8x000_0266 - 2027264 dm ibm_ds8x000_0267 ibm_ds8x000_0267 - 2027264 dm ibm_ds8x000_0268 ibm_ds8x000_0268 - 2027264 -
v
pl
sd
pl
sd
dc
v
pl
sd
pl
sd
ACTIVE
ACTIVE
ACTIVE
ACTIVE
ACTIVE
ACTIVE
-
vol1
fsgen
ENABLED 409600
vol1-01
vol1
ENABLED 409600
ibm_ds8x000_0266-01 vol1-01 ENABLED 409600
vol1-02
vol1
ENABLED 409600
vol1_dco
vol1
vol1_dcl
gen
ENABLED 144
vol1_dcl-01 vol1_dcl
ENABLED 144
ibm_ds8x000_0266-02 vol1_dcl-01 ENABLED 144
vol1_dcl-02 vol1_dcl
ENABLED 144
ibm_ds8x000_0267-02 vol1_dcl-02 ENABLED 144
PLOFFS
-
0
0
0
0
The following vxassist command confirms that vol1 is in the tier tier1. The
application of rule tier1 was successful.
vxassist -g dg3 listtag
TY NAME
DISKGROUP
TAG
=========================================================
v
vol1
dg3
vxfs.placement_class.tier1
Understanding persistent attributes

The vxassist command lets you record certain volume allocation attributes for a
volume. These attributes are called persistent attributes. You can record the
attributes which would be useful in later allocation operations on the volume, such
as volume grow and enclosure mirroring. You can also restrict allocation to storage
that has a particular property (such as the enclosure type, disk tag, or media type).
On the other hand, volume length is not useful, and generally neither is a specific
list of disks.
The persistent attributes can be retrieved and applied to the allocation requests
(with possible modifications) for the following operations:
volume grow or shrink
move
relayout
121

mirror
add a log
Persistent attributes let you record carefully-described allocation attributes at the

time of volume creation and retain them for future allocation operations on the
volume. Also, you can modify, enhance, or discard the persistent attributes. For
example, you can add and retain a separation rule for a volume that is originally
not mirrored. Alternatively, you can temporarily suspend a volume allocation rule
which has proven too restrictive or discard it to allow a needed allocation to succeed.
You can use the persist attribute to record allocation attributes on the command
line or in a rule file.
See Using persistent attributes on page 122.
You can manage the use and require type of persistent attributes with the intent
management operations: setrule, changerule, clearrule, and listrule.
Using persistent attributes

You can define volume allocation attributes so they can be reused in subsequent
operations. These attributes are called persistent attributes, and they are stored in
a set of hidden volume tags. The persist attribute determines whether an attribute
persists, and how the current command might use or modify preexisting persisted
attributes. You can specify persistence rules in defaults files, in rules, or on the
command line. For more information, see the vxassist manual page.
To illustrate how persistent attributes work, we will use the following vxsf_rules
file. It contains a rule, rule1, which defines the mediatype attribute. This rule also
uses the persist attribute to make the mediatype attribute persistent.
# cat /etc/default/vxsf_rules
volume rule rule1 { mediatype:ssd persist=extended }
The following command confirms that LUNs ibm_ds8x000_0266 and

ibm_ds8x000_0268 are Solid-State Drive (SSD) devices.
# vxdisk listtag
DEVICE
ibm_ds8x000_0266
ibm_ds8x000_0268
NAME
vxmediatype
vxmediatype
VALUE
ssd
ssd
The following command creates a volume, vol1, in the disk group dg3. rule1 is
specified on the command line, so those attributes are also applied to vol1.
122

# vxassist -g dg3 make vol1 100m rule=rule1
The following command shows that the volume vol1 is created off the SSD device
ibm_ds8x000_0266 as specified in rule1.
# vxprint -g dg3
TY NAME
dg dg3
ASSOC
dg3
KSTATE
-
LENGTH
-
PLOFFS
-
STATE
-
TUTIL0
-
PUTIL0
-
v vol1
fsgen
ENABLED 204800
pl vol1-01
vol1
ENABLED 204800
sd ibm_ds8x000_0266-01 vol1-01 ENABLED 204800
ACTIVE
ACTIVE
-
The following command displays the attributes that are defined in rule1.
# vxassist -g dg3 help showattrs rule=rule1
alloc=mediatype:ssd
persist=extended
If no persistent attributes are defined, the following command grows vol1 on Hard
Disk Drive (HDD) devices. However, at the beginning of this section, mediatype:ssd
was defined as a persistent attribute. Therefore, the following command honors
this original intent and grows the volume on SSD devices.
# vxassist -g dg3 growby vol1 1g
The following vxprint command confirms that the volume was grown on SSD
devices.
# vxprint -g dg3
TY NAME
dg dg3
ASSOC
dg3
KSTATE
-
LENGTH
-
STATE
-
TUTIL0
-
PUTIL0
-
v
pl
sd
sd
ACTIVE
ACTIVE
-
vol1
fsgen
ENABLED 2301952
vol1-01
vol1
ENABLED 2301952
PLOFFS
-
0
2027264
123

Customizing disk classes for allocation

The vxassist command accepts disk classes to indicate storage specifications for
allocation. The disk classes are internally-discovered attributes that are automatically
associated with the disks. You can specify disk classes to an allocation request
with vxassist to indicate the type of storage to allocate.
For more information about the disk classes, see the Storage Specifications section
of the vxassist(1M) manual page.
You can customize the disk classes in the following ways:
Create a customized alias name.

See User-defined alias names for disk classes on page 124.
Customize the priority order for the disk classes.

See User-defined precedence order for disk classes on page 124.
You can also create customized, user-defined disk classes.

See User-defined disk classes on page 125.
User-defined alias names for disk classes

For convenience, you can define alias names for existing storage-specification disk
classes. Typically, an alias is a shorter or more user-friendly name. You can use
the alias instead of its corresponding disk class, to specify vxassist allocation
constraints. Define the alias names in rule files.
For example, to define atyp as an alias for the base disk class arraytype, include
the following statement in a rule file.
class alias atyp=arraytype
When the above rule file is used, you can specify the alias atyp for allocation. For
example, the following constraint specification allocates storage from A/A arrays
for the volume creation.
# vxassist -g dgname make volname volsize use=atyp:A/A
User-defined precedence order for disk classes

The vxassist command applies a default priority order for the disk classes that
are specified in the mirror confinement (mirrorconfine, wantmirrorconfine),
mirror separation (mirror, wantmirror), and stripe separation (stripe, wantstripe)
constraints. The higher priority class is honored for allocation when mirroring or
striping. If a different priority order is required, you can change the default order for
these disk classes.
124

Note: The site class always has the highest precedence, and its order cannot be
overridden.
Define the customized precedence order in a rule file. The higher the order number,
the higher is the class precedence.
The following shows the default precedence order, for the class names supported
with mirror and stripe separation or confinement constraints.
site
order=1000
vendor
order=900
arrayproduct
order=800
array
order=700
arrayport
order=600
hostport
order=400
The acceptable range for the precedence order is between 0 and 1000.
For example, the array class has a higher priority than the hostport class by default.
To make the hostport class have a higher priority, assign the hostport class a higher
order number. To define the order for the classes, include the following statement
in a rule file:
class define array order=400
class define hostport order=700
When the above rule is used, the following command mirrors across hostport class
rather than the array class.
# vxassist -g dgname make volname volsize mirror=array,hostport
User-defined disk classes

You can define customized disk classes to use in storage specifications for the
vxassist command. Customized disk classes allow for user-defined device
classification and grouping. You can use these disk classes to control allocations.
A customized disk class is a user-defined property that is associated with a set of
disks. The property is attached as a disk class to the disks that satisfy a particular
constraint.
125

You can use the custom disk classes like other storage-specification disk classes,
to specify vxassist allocation constraints. Define the custom disk classes in a rule
file.
Example
With the following definition in the rule file, the user-defined property poolname
is associated to the referenced disks. All devices that have the array vendor property
defined as HITACHI or IBM, are marked as poolname finance. All devices that
have the array vendor property defined as DGC or EMC, are marked as poolname
admin.
disk properties vendor:HITACHI {
poolname:finance
}
disk properties vendor:IBM {
poolname:finance
}
disk properties vendor:DGC {
poolname:admin
}
disk properties vendor:EMC {
poolname:admin
}
You can now use the user-defined disk class poolnamefor allocation. For example,
the following constraint specification allocates disks from the poolname admin for
the volume creation.
# vxassist -g dgname make volname volsize poolname:admin
Specifying allocation constraints for vxassist operations with the use

clause and the require clause
The vxassist command accepts a variety of storage specifications for allocations.
The require constraint and the use constraint are methods to specify detailed storage
specifications for allocations. These constraints enable you to select disks from an
intersection set or a union set of intended properties. You can specify the set of
disks for allocations with more precision than the existing methods alloc and
logdisk clauses. The use and require constraints can apply to data, log, or both
data and log.
The constraints can be one of the following types:
The require constraints
126

All of the specifications in the constraint must be satisfied, or the allocation fails.
A require constraint behaves as an intersection set. For example, allocate disks
from a particular array vendor AND with a particular array type.
The use constraints

At least one of the specifications in the constraint must be satisfied, or the
allocation fails. A use constraint behaves as a union set. For example, allocate
disks from any of the specified enclosures: enclrA or enclrB.
For disk group version of 180 or above, the use and require type of constraints are
persistent for the volume by default. The default preservation of these clauses
enables further allocation operations like grow, without breaking the specified intents.
You can specify multiple storage specifications, separated by commas, in a use or
require clause on the vxassist command line. You can also specify multiple use
or require clauses on the vxassistcommand line.
See Interaction of multiple require and use constraints on page 128.
Use the vxassist intent management operations (setrule, changerule, clearrule,
listrule) to manage persistent require and use constraints.
About require constraints

The require type of constraints specify that the allocation must select storage that
matches all the storage specifications in the constraint. Therefore, the require
constraint acts like an intersection set, or a logical AND operation. If any of the
specifications cannot be met, the operation fails. The attribute names to specify
require constraints are:
require
The constraint applies to both data and log allocation.
logrequire
The constraint applies to log allocations only.
datarequire
The constraint applies to data allocations only.

If any storage-specification is negated with !, the allocation excludes the storage
that matches that storage specification
Note: If the require type of constraint is provided with the same class but different
instances, then these instances are unionized rather than intersected. That is, the
allocation selects storage that satisfies any of these storage specifications (similar
to use type of constraint).
127

About use constraints

The use type of constraints specify that the allocation must select storage that
matches at least one of the storage specifications in the constraint. Therefore, the
use constraint acts like a union set, or a logical OR operation. If none of the
specifications can be met, the operation fails. The attribute names to specify use
constraints are:
use
The constraint applies to both data and log allocation.
loguse
The constraint applies to log allocations only.
datause
The constraint applies to data allocations only.

If the storage specification is negated with !, then the allocation excludes the storage
that matches that storage specification.
Interaction of multiple require and use constraints

You can specify multiple use or require clauses on the vxassist command line.
Not all combinations are supported. However, all possible constraint specifications
can be achieved with the supported combinations.
The scope for a constraint can be data-specific (datause or datarequire), log-specific
(loguse or logrequire) or general, which applies to both data and log (use or require).
Note: Symantec recommends that you do not combine use or require constraints
with direct storage-specifications or other clauses like alloc or logdisk.
The following rules apply when multiple use or require clauses are specified:
Multiple use constraints of the same scope are unionized, so that at least one
of the storage specifications is satisfied. That is, multiple use clauses; multiple
datause clauses; or multiple loguse clauses.
Multiple require constraints of the same scope are intersected, so that all the
storage specifications are satisfied. That is, multiple require clauses; multiple
datarequire clauses; or multiple logrequire clauses.
128

Require and use constraints of the same scope are mutually intersected. That
is, require clauses and use clauses; datarequire clauses and datause clauses;
or logrequire clauses and loguse clauses. At least one of the use storage
specifications must be satisfied and all of the require storage specifications are
satisfied. For example, if a datause clause and a datarequire clause are used
together, the allocation for the data must meet at least one of the datause
specifications and all of the datarequire specifications.
Data-specific constraints and log-specific constraints can be used together.

They are applied independently to data and logs respectively. That is, datause
clause with loguse clause or logrequire clause; datarequire clause with
loguse clause or logrequire clause . For example, a datarequire clause can
be used to control data allocation along with a logrequire clause to control log
allocation.
The vxassist command does not support a mix of general scope constraints
with data-specific or log-specific constraints. For example, a require clause
cannot be used along with the logrequire clause or a datarequire clause.
However, all possible constraint specifications can be achieved with the
supported combinations.
Table 6-2 summarizes these rules for the interaction of each type of constraint if
multiple constraints are specified.
Table 6-2
Combinations of require and use constraints
Scope
Mutually unionized Mutually

intersected
Data
datause - datause
Applied
independently
datarequire - datause datause - loguse

datarequire datarequire
datause - logrequire
datarequire - loguse
datarequire logrequire
Log
loguse - loguse
logrequire - loguse
loguse - datause
logrequire - logrequire loguse - datarequire

logrequire -datause
logrequire datarequire
General - log and
data
use - use
use - require
require - require
N/A
129

Examples of use and require constraints

The following examples show use and require constraints for storage allocation.
Example 1 - require constraint
This example shows the require constraint in a disk group that has disks from two
arrays: emc_clariion0 and ams_wms0. Both arrays are connected through the same
HBA hostportid (06-08-02), but the arrays have different arraytype (A/A and A/A-A
respectively).
The following output shows the disk group information:
# vxprint -g testdg
TY NAME
dg testdg
dm
dm
dm
dm
dm
dm
dm
dm
ASSOC
testdg
KSTATE
-
ams_wms0_359 ams_wms0_359 ams_wms0_360 ams_wms0_360 ams_wms0_361 ams_wms0_361 ams_wms0_362 ams_wms0_362 emc_clariion0_0 emc_clariion0_0
emc_clariion0_1 emc_clariion0_1
LENGTH
-
PLOFFS
-
STATE
-
TUTIL0
-
PUTIL0
-
2027264
2027264
2027264
2027264
4120320
4120320
4120320
4120320
To allocate both the data and the log on the disks that are attached to the particular
HBA and that have the array type A/A:
# vxassist -g testdg make v1 1G logtype=dco dcoversion=20 \
require=hostportid:06-08-02,arraytype:A/A
The following output shows the results of the above command. The command
allocated disk space for the data and the log on emc_clariion0 array disks, which
satisfy all the storage specifications in the require constraint:
# vxprint -g testdg
TY NAME
dg testdg
dm
dm
dm
dm
dm
dm
dm
ASSOC
testdg
KSTATE
-
ams_wms0_359 ams_wms0_359 ams_wms0_360 ams_wms0_360 ams_wms0_361 ams_wms0_361 ams_wms0_362 ams_wms0_362 emc_clariion0_0 emc_clariion0_0 emc_clariion0_1 emc_clariion0_1 emc_clariion0_2 emc_clariion0_2 -
LENGTH
-
PLOFFS
-
STATE
-
TUTIL0
-
PUTIL0
-
2027264
2027264
2027264
2027264
4120320
4120320
4120320
130

dm emc_clariion0_3 emc_clariion0_3 v
pl
sd
dc
v
pl
sd
4120320
v1
fsgen
ENABLED 2097152
v1-01
v1
ENABLED 2097152
emc_clariion0_0-01 v1-01 ENABLED 2097152
v1_dco
v1
v1_dcl
gen
ENABLED 67840
v1_dcl-01
v1_dcl
ENABLED 67840
emc_clariion0_0-02 v1_dcl-01 ENABLED 67840
0
0
ACTIVE
ACTIVE
ACTIVE
ACTIVE
-
Example 2 - use constraint

This example shows the use constraint in a disk group that has disks from three
arrays: ams_wms0, emc_clariion0, and hitachi_vsp0.
# vxprint -g testdg
TY NAME
dg testdg
dm
dm
dm
dm
dm
dm
ASSOC
testdg
KSTATE
-
ams_wms0_359 ams_wms0_359 ams_wms0_360 ams_wms0_360 ams_wms0_361 ams_wms0_361 ams_wms0_362 ams_wms0_362 emc_clariion0_0 emc_clariion0_0 hitachi_vsp0_3 hitachi_vsp0_3 -
LENGTH
-
PLOFFS
-
STATE
-
TUTIL0
-
PUTIL0
-
2027264
2027264
2027264
2027264
4120320
4120320
To allocate both the data and the log on the disks that belong to the array ams_wms0
or the array emc_clariion0:
use=array:ams_wms0,array:emc_clariion0
allocated disk space for the data and the log on disks that satisfy the arrays specified
in the use constraint.
# vxprint -g testdg
TY NAME
dg testdg
ASSOC
testdg
KSTATE
-
LENGTH
-
PLOFFS
-
STATE
-
TUTIL0
-
PUTIL0
-
dm
dm
dm
dm
ams_wms0_359
ams_wms0_360
ams_wms0_361
ams_wms0_362
2027264
2027264
2027264
2027264
ams_wms0_359
ams_wms0_360
ams_wms0_361
ams_wms0_362
131

dm emc_clariion0_0 emc_clariion0_0 dm hitachi_vsp0_3 hitachi_vsp0_3 -
4120320
4120320
v
pl
sd
sd
sd
dc
v
pl
sd
6291456
6291456
2027264
143872
4120320
67840
67840
67840
0
2027264
2171136
0
ACTIVE
ACTIVE
ACTIVE
ACTIVE
-
v1
fsgen
v1-01
v1
ams_wms0_359-01 v1-01
ams_wms0_360-01 v1-01
emc_clariion0_0-01 v1-01
v1_dco
v1
v1_dcl
gen
v1_dcl-01
v1_dcl
ams_wms0_360-02 v1_dcl-01
ENABLED
ENABLED
ENABLED
ENABLED
ENABLED
ENABLED
ENABLED
ENABLED
132
Example 3: datause and logrequire combination

This example shows the combination of a datause constraint and a logrequire
constraint. The disk group has disks from three arrays: ams_wms0, emc_clariion0,
and hitachi_vsp0, which have different array types.
# vxprint -g testdg
TY NAME
ASSOC
KSTATE
dg testdg
testdg
dm ams_wms0_359 ams_wms0_359 dm ams_wms0_360 ams_wms0_360 dm ams_wms0_361 ams_wms0_361 -
LENGTH
2027264
2027264
2027264
PLOFFS
-
STATE
-
TUTIL0 PUTIL0
-
dm
dm
dm
dm
dm
dm
2027264
4120320
4120320
4120320
4120320
4120320
ams_wms0_362 ams_wms0_362 emc_clariion0_0 emc_clariion0_0

hitachi_vsp0_3 hitachi_vsp0_3 -
To allocate data on disks from ams_wms0 or emc_clariion0 array, and to allocate

log on disks from arraytype A/A-A:
datause=array:ams_wms0,array:emc_clariion0 logrequire=arraytype:A/A-A
allocated disk space for the data and the log independently. The data space is
allocated on emc_clariion0 disks that satisfy the datause constraint. The log space
is allocated on ams_wms0 disks that are A/A-A arraytype and that satisfy the
logrequire constraint:

# vxprint -g testdg
TY NAME
ASSOC
KSTATE
dg testdg
testdg
dm ams_wms0_359 ams_wms0_359 -
LENGTH
2027264
PLOFFS
-
STATE
-
TUTIL0
-
PUTIL0
-
dm
dm
dm
dm
dm
dm
dm
dm
ams_wms0_360 ams_wms0_360 ams_wms0_361 ams_wms0_361 ams_wms0_362 ams_wms0_362 emc_clariion0_0 emc_clariion0_0

hitachi_vsp0_3 hitachi_vsp0_3 -
2027264
2027264
2027264
4120320
4120320
4120320
4120320
4120320
v
pl
sd
dc
v
pl
sd
v1
fsgen
v1-01
v1
emc_clariion0_0-01 v1-01
v1_dco
v1
v1_dcl
gen
v1_dcl-01
v1_dcl
ams_wms0_359-01 v1_dcl-01
2097152
2097152
2097152
67840
67840
67840
0
0
ACTIVE
ACTIVE
ACTIVE
ACTIVE
-
ENABLED
ENABLED
ENABLED
ENABLED
ENABLED
ENABLED
Example 4 - use and require combination

This example shows the combination of a use constraint and a require constraint.
The disk group has disks from three arrays: ams_wms0, emc_clariion0, and
hitachi_vsp0. Only the disks from ams_wms0 array are multi-pathed.
# vxprint -g testdg
TY
dg
dm
dm
dm
dm
dm
dm
dm
dm
dm
NAME
ASSOC
KSTATE
testdg
testdg
ams_wms0_359 ams_wms0_359 ams_wms0_360 ams_wms0_360 ams_wms0_361 ams_wms0_361 ams_wms0_362 ams_wms0_362 emc_clariion0_0 emc_clariion0_0 emc_clariion0_1 emc_clariion0_1 emc_clariion0_2 emc_clariion0_2 emc_clariion0_3 emc_clariion0_3 hitachi_vsp0_3 hitachi_vsp0_3 -
LENGTH
2027264
2027264
2027264
2027264
4120320
4120320
4120320
4120320
4120320
PLOFFS
-
STATE
-
TUTIL0
-
PUTIL0
-
To allocate data and log space on disks from emc_clariion0 or ams_wms0 array,
and disks that are multi-pathed:
133


use=array:emc_clariion0,array:ams_wms0 require=multipathed:yes
The following output shows the results of the allocation. The data and log space is
on ams_wms0 disks, which satisfy the use as well as the require constraints:
# vxprint -g testdg
TY
dg
dm
dm
dm
dm
dm
dm
dm
dm
dm
v
pl
sd
sd
dc
v
pl
sd
NAME
ASSOC
KSTATE
testdg
testdg
ams_wms0_359 ams_wms0_359 ams_wms0_360 ams_wms0_360 ams_wms0_361 ams_wms0_361 ams_wms0_362 ams_wms0_362 emc_clariion0_0 emc_clariion0_0 emc_clariion0_1 emc_clariion0_1 emc_clariion0_2 emc_clariion0_2 emc_clariion0_3 emc_clariion0_3 hitachi_vsp0_3 hitachi_vsp0_3 v1
fsgen
ENABLED
v1-01
v1
ENABLED
ams_wms0_359-01 v1-01
ENABLED
ams_wms0_360-01 v1-01
ENABLED
v1_dco
v1
v1_dcl
gen
ENABLED
v1_dcl-01
v1_dcl
ENABLED
ams_wms0_360-02 v1_dcl-01 ENABLED
LENGTH
2027264
2027264
2027264
2027264
4120320
4120320
4120320
4120320
4120320
2097152
2097152
2027264
69888
67840
67840
67840
PLOFFS
0
2027264
0
STATE
ACTIVE
ACTIVE
ACTIVE
ACTIVE
-
TUTIL0
-
PUTIL0
-
Management of the use and require type of persistent attributes

Persistent attributes are the saved volume intents that should be honored for
subsequent allocation operations for that volume. The intent management operations
enable you to manage the use and require type of persistent intents for volumes.
These operations allow you to independently manage the intents after the volume
creation. When you change the persistent intents for a volume, the changed intents
are not checked for validity or enforced for the current allocation of the volume.
You can set, change, clear, or list the persistent intents for the volume with the
following vxassist operations:
setrule
Replaces any existing saved intents with the specified intents for the specified
volume.
changerule
134

Appends the specified intents to the existing saved intents for the specified
volume.
clearrule
Removes any existing saved intents for the specified volume.
listrule
Lists any saved intents for the specified volume. If no volume name is specified,
the command shows the intents for all of the volumes.
The intent management operations only apply to the use or require type of persistent
constraints. The other type of persistent constraints are managed with the persist
attribute.
See Using persistent attributes on page 122.
To display the intents that are currently associated to a volume
To display the intents that are currently associated to a volume, use the
following command:
# vxassist [options] listrule [volume]
For example, to display the existing saved intents for the volume v1:
# vxassist -g testdg listrule v1
volume rule v1 {
require=array:ams_wms0
}
135

To replace the intents that are currently associated to a volume
Display the intents that are currently associated to the volume:

In this example, the volume v1 has an existing saved intent that requires the
array to be ams_wms0. For example, to display the existing saved intents for
the volume v1:
volume rule v1 {
require=array:ams_wms0
}
Specify the new intent with the following command:

# vxassist [options] setrule volume attributes...
For example, to replace the array with the ds4100-0 array, specify the new
intent with the following command:
# vxassist -g testdg setrule v1 require=array:ds4100-0
Verify the new intent with the display command.

For example, the following command shows that the intent has changed:
volume rule v1 {
require=array:ds4100-0
}
136

To add to the intents that are currently associated to a volume

In this example, the volume v1 has an existing saved intent that requires the
array to be ds4100-0. For example, to display the existing saved intents for
the volume v1:
volume rule v1 {
use=array:ds4100-0
}
Add the new intent with the following command:

# vxassist [options] changerule volume attributes...
For example, to add the ams_wms0 array in the use constraint, specify the
new intent with the following command:
# vxassist -g testdg changerule v1 use=array:ams_wms0
Verify the new intent with the display command.

For example, the following command shows that the intent has changed:
volume rule v1 {
use=array:ds4100-0,array:ams_wms0
}
137

To clear the intents that are currently associated to a volume

For example, to display the existing saved intents for the volume v1:
volume rule v1 {
require=multipathed:yes
use=array:emc_clariion0,array:ams_wms0
}
Clear the existing intents with the following command:

# vxassist [options] clearrule volume
For example, to clear the intents for the volume v1:

# vxassist -g testdg clearrule v1
Verify that the volume has no saved intents.

For example, the following command shows that the volume v1 has no saved
intents:
volume rule v1 {}

Veritas Volume Manager (VxVM) enables you to create volumes of various layouts.
You can specify an attribute to indicate the type of layout you want to create. The
following sections include details for each of the following types:
mirrored volumes
See Creating a mirrored volume on page 140.
striped volumes
See Creating a striped volume on page 142.
RAID-5 volumes
See Creating a RAID-5 volume on page 144.
138

Types of volume layouts

Veritas Volume Manager (VxVM) allows you to create volumes with several layout
types. Table 6-3 describes the layout types for VxVM volumes.
Table 6-3
Types of volume layout
Layout type
Description
Concatenated
A volume whose subdisks are arranged both sequentially and

contiguously within a plex. Concatenation allows a volume to be
created from multiple regions of one or more disks if there is not
enough space for an entire volume on a single region of a disk. If
a single LUN or disk is split into multiple subdisks, and each subdisk
belongs to a unique volume, this is called carving.
See Concatenation, spanning, and carving on page 57.
Striped
A volume with data spread evenly across multiple disks. Stripes

are equal-sized fragments that are allocated alternately and evenly
to the subdisks of a single plex. There must be at least two subdisks
in a striped plex, each of which must exist on a different disk.
Throughput increases with the number of disks across which a plex
is striped. Striping helps to balance I/O load in cases where high
traffic areas exist on certain subdisks.
Mirrored
A volume with multiple data plexes that duplicate the information

contained in a volume. Although a volume can have a single data
plex, at least two are required for true mirroring to provide
redundancy of data. For the redundancy to be useful, each of these
data plexes should contain disk space from different disks.
See Mirroring (RAID-1) on page 62.
RAID-5
A volume that uses striping to spread data and parity evenly across
multiple disks in an array. Each stripe contains a parity stripe unit
and data stripe units. Parity can be used to reconstruct data if one
of the disks fails. In comparison to the performance of striped
volumes, write throughput of RAID-5 volumes decreases since
parity information needs to be updated each time data is modified.
However, in comparison to mirroring, the use of parity to implement
data redundancy reduces the amount of space required.
139

Table 6-3
Types of volume layout (continued)
Layout type
Description
Mirrored-stripe
A volume that is configured as a striped plex and another plex that

mirrors the striped one. This requires at least two disks for striping
and one or more other disks for mirroring (depending on whether
the plex is simple or striped). The advantages of this layout are
increased performance by spreading data across multiple disks
and redundancy of data.
See Striping plus mirroring (mirrored-stripe or RAID-0+1)
on page 63.
Layered Volume
A volume constructed from other volumes. Non-layered volumes

are constructed by mapping their subdisks to VxVM disks. Layered
volumes are constructed by mapping their subdisks to underlying
volumes (known as storage volumes), and allow the creation of
more complex forms of logical layout.
The following layouts are examples of layered volumes:
Striped-mirror
A striped-mirror volume is created by configuring several
mirrored volumes as the columns of a striped volume. This
layout offers the same benefits as a non-layered mirrored-stripe
volume. In addition, it provides faster recovery as the failure of
single disk does not force an entire striped plex offline.
See Mirroring plus striping (striped-mirror, RAID-1+0, or
RAID-10) on page 64.
Concatenated-mirror
A concatenated-mirror volume is created by concatenating
several mirrored volumes. This provides faster recovery as the
failure of a single disk does not force the entire mirror offline.
Creating a mirrored volume

A mirrored volume provides data redundancy by containing more than one copy of
its data. Each copy (or mirror) is stored on different disks from the original copy of
the volume and from other mirrors. Mirroring a volume ensures that its data is not
lost if a disk in one of its component mirrors fails.
A mirrored volume requires space to be available on at least as many disks in the
disk group as the number of mirrors in the volume.
If you specify layout=mirror, vxassist determines the best layout for the mirrored
volume. Because the advantages of the layouts are related to the size of the volume,
140

vxassist selects the layout based on the size of the volume. For smaller volumes,
vxassist uses the simpler mirrored concatenated (mirror-concat) layout. For larger
volumes, vxassist uses the more complex concatenated mirror (concat-mirror)

layout. The attribute stripe-mirror-col-split-trigger-pt controls the selection. Volumes
that are smaller than stripe-mirror-col-split-trigger-pt are created as mirror-concat,
and volumes that are larger are created as concat-mirror. By default, the attribute
stripe-mirror-col-split-trigger-pt is set to one gigabyte. The value can be set in
/etc/default/vxassist. If there is a reason to implement a particular layout, you
can specify layout=mirror-concat or layout=concat-mirror to implement the desired
layout.
To create a new mirrored volume
Create a new mirrored volume, using the following command:

# vxassist [-b] [-g diskgroup] make volume length \
layout=mirror [nmirror=number] [init=active]
Specify the -b option if you want to make the volume immediately available
for use.
For example, to create the mirrored volume, volmir, in the disk group, mydg,
use the following command:
# vxassist -b -g mydg make volmir 5g layout=mirror
The following example shows how to create a volume with 3 mirrors instead
of the default of 2 mirrors:
# vxassist -b -g mydg make volmir 5g layout=mirror nmirror=3
Creating a mirrored-concatenated volume

A mirrored-concatenated volume mirrors several concatenated plexes.
To create a mirrored-concatenated volume
Create the volume as a mirrored-concatenated volume, using the following

command:
layout=mirror-concat [nmirror=number]
for use.
Alternatively, first create a concatenated volume, and then mirror it.
141

See Adding a mirror to a volume on page 612.
Creating a concatenated-mirror volume

A concatenated-mirror volume is an example of a layered volume which
concatenates several underlying mirror volumes.
To create a concatenated-mirror volume
Create a concatenated-mirror volume, using the following command:

layout=concat-mirror [nmirror=number]
for use.
Creating a striped volume

A striped volume contains at least one plex that consists of two or more subdisks
located on two or more physical disks. A striped volume requires space to be
available on at least as many disks in the disk group as the number of columns in
the volume.
To create a striped volume, use the following command:
# vxassist [-b] [-g diskgroup] make volume length layout=stripe
Specify the -b option if you want to make the volume immediately available for use.
For example, to create the 10-gigabyte striped volume volzebra, in the disk group,
mydg, use the following command:
# vxassist -b -g mydg make volzebra 10g layout=stripe
This creates a striped volume with the default stripe unit size (64 kilobytes) and the
default number of stripes (2).
You can specify the disks on which the volumes are to be created by including the
disk names on the command line. For example, to create a 30-gigabyte striped
volume on three specific disks, mydg03, mydg04, and mydg05, use the following
command:
# vxassist -b -g mydg make stripevol 30g layout=stripe \
mydg03 mydg04 mydg05
142

To change the number of columns or the stripe width, use the ncolumn and
stripeunit modifiers with vxassist. For example, the following command creates
a striped volume with 5 columns and a 32-kilobyte stripe size:
# vxassist -b -g mydg make stripevol 30g layout=stripe \
stripeunit=32k ncol=5
Creating a mirrored-stripe volume

A mirrored-stripe volume mirrors several striped data plexes. A mirrored-stripe
volume requires space to be available on at least as many disks in the disk group
as the number of mirrors multiplied by the number of columns in the volume.
To create a mirrored-stripe volume, use the following command:
layout=mirror-stripe [nmirror=number_of_mirrors] \
[ncol=number_of_columns] [stripewidth=size]
Alternatively, first create a striped volume, and then mirror it. In this case, the
additional data plexes may be either striped or concatenated.
See Adding a mirror to a volume on page 612.
Creating a striped-mirror volume

A striped-mirror volume is an example of a layered volume that stripes several
underlying mirror volumes. A striped-mirror volume requires space to be available
on at least as many disks in the disk group as the number of columns multiplied by
the number of mirrors in the volume.
To create a striped-mirror volume, use the following command:
layout=stripe-mirror [nmirror=number_of_mirrors] \
[ncol=number_of_columns] [stripewidth=size]
By default, Veritas Volume Manager (VxVM) attempts to create the underlying
volumes by mirroring subdisks rather than columns if the size of each column is
greater than the value for the attribute stripe-mirror-col-split-trigger-pt
that is defined in the vxassist defaults file.
If there are multiple subdisks per column, you can choose to mirror each subdisk
individually instead of each column. To mirror at the subdisk level, specify the layout
143

as stripe-mirror-sd rather than stripe-mirror. To mirror at the column level,

specify the layout as stripe-mirror-col rather than stripe-mirror.
Creating a RAID-5 volume

A RAID-5 volume requires space to be available on at least as many disks in the
disk group as the number of columns in the volume. Additional disks may be required
for any RAID-5 logs that are created.
Note: Veritas Volume Manager (VxVM) supports the creation of RAID-5 volumes
in private disk groups, but not in shareable disk groups in a cluster environment.
You can create RAID-5 volumes by using either the vxassist command
(recommended) or the vxmake command. This section describes using the preferred
method, the vxassist command.
For information about using the vxmake command, see the vxmake(1M) manual
page.
A RAID-5 volume contains a RAID-5 data plex that consists of three or more
subdisks located on three or more physical disks. Only one RAID-5 data plex can
exist per volume. A RAID-5 volume can also contain one or more RAID-5 log plexes,
which are used to log information about data and parity being written to the volume.
Warning: Do not create a RAID-5 volume with more than 8 columns because the
volume will be unrecoverable in the event of the failure of more than one disk.
To create a RAID-5 volume, use the following command:
# vxassist [-b] [-g diskgroup] make volume length layout=raid5 \
[ncol=number_of_columns] [stripewidth=size] [nlog=number] \
[loglen=log_length]
For example, to create the RAID-5 volume volraid together with 2 RAID-5 logs in
the disk group, mydg, use the following command:
# vxassist -b -g mydg make volraid 10g layout=raid5 nlog=2
This creates a RAID-5 volume with the default stripe unit size on the default number
of disks. It also creates two RAID-5 logs rather than the default of one log.
144

If you require RAID-5 logs, you must use the logdisk attribute to specify the disks
to be used for the log plexes.
RAID-5 logs can be concatenated or striped plexes, and each RAID-5 log associated
with a RAID-5 volume has a complete copy of the logging information for the volume.
To support concurrent access to the RAID-5 array, the log should be several times
the stripe size of the RAID-5 plex.
It is suggested that you configure a minimum of two RAID-5 log plexes for each
RAID-5 volume. These log plexes should be located on different disks. Having two
RAID-5 log plexes for each RAID-5 volume protects against the loss of logging
information due to the failure of a single disk.
If you use ordered allocation when creating a RAID-5 volume on specified storage,
you must use the logdisk attribute to specify on which disks the RAID-5 log plexes
should be created. Use the following form of the vxassist command to specify the
disks from which space for the logs is to be allocated:
# vxassist [-b] [-g diskgroup] -o ordered make volume length \
layout=raid5 [ncol=number_columns] [nlog=number] \
[loglen=log_length] logdisk=disk[,disk,...] \
storage_attributes
For example, the following command creates a 3-column RAID-5 volume with the
default stripe unit size on disks mydg04, mydg05 and mydg06. It also creates two
RAID-5 logs on disks mydg07 and mydg08.
# vxassist -b -g mydg -o ordered make volraid 10g layout=raid5 \
ncol=3 nlog=2 logdisk=mydg07,mydg08 mydg04 mydg05 mydg06
The number of logs must equal the number of disks that is specified to logdisk.
See Specifying ordered allocation of storage to volumes on page 147.
You can add more logs to a RAID-5 volume at a later time.
To add a RAID-5 log to an existing volume, use the following command:
# vxassist [-b] [-g diskgroup] addlog volume [loglen=length]
If you specify the -b option, adding the new log is a background task.
When you add the first log to a volume, you can specify the log length. Any logs
that you add subsequently are configured with the same length as the existing log.
For example, to create a log for the RAID-5 volume volraid, in the disk group mydg,
145

# vxassist -g mydg addlog volraid

Veritas Volume Manager (VxVM) automatically selects the disks on which each
volume resides, unless you specify otherwise. If you want to select a particular type
of disks for a certain volume, you can provide the storage specifications to vxassist
for storage allocation.
For more infornation, see the Storage Specifications section of the vxassist(1M)
manual page.
See Customizing disk classes for allocation on page 124.
See Specifying allocation constraints for vxassist operations with the use clause
and the require clause on page 126.
If you want a volume to be created on specific disks, you must designate those
disks to VxVM. More than one disk can be specified.
To create a volume on a specific disk or disks, use the following command:
[layout=layout] diskname ...
For example, to create the volume volspec with length 5 gigabytes on disks mydg03
and mydg04, use the following command:
# vxassist -b -g mydg make volspec 5g mydg03 mydg04
The vxassist command allows you to specify storage attributes. These give you
control over the devices, including disks and controllers, which vxassist uses to
configure a volume.
For example, you can specifically exclude the disk mydg05.
Note: The ! character is a special character in some shells. The following examples
show how to escape it in a bash shell.
# vxassist -b -g mydg make volspec 5g \!mydg05
The following example excludes all disks that are on controller c2:
# vxassist -b -g mydg make volspec 5g \!ctlr:c2
146

If you want a volume to be created using only disks from a specific disk group, use
the -g option to vxassist, for example:
# vxassist -g bigone -b make volmega 20g bigone10 bigone11
or alternatively, use the diskgroup attribute:

# vxassist -b make volmega 20g diskgroup=bigone bigone10 \
bigone11
Any storage attributes that you specify for use must belong to the disk group.
Otherwise, vxassist will not use them to create a volume.
You can also use storage attributes to control how vxassist uses available storage,
for example, when calculating the maximum size of a volume, when growing a
volume or when removing mirrors or logs from a volume. The following example
excludes disks mydg07 and mydg08 when calculating the maximum size of a RAID-5
volume that vxassist can create using the disks in the disk group mydg:
# vxassist -b -g mydg maxsize layout=raid5 nlog=2 \!mydg07 \!mydg08
It is also possible to control how volumes are laid out on the specified storage.
See Specifying ordered allocation of storage to volumes on page 147.
vxassist also lets you select disks based on disk tags. The following command
only includes disks that have a tier1 disktag.

# vxassist -g mydg make vol3 1g disktag:tier1

When you create a volume, you can specify the media type for the volume. The
supported media types are Hard Disk Drives (HDD) or Solid State Devices (SSD).
The SSD media type requires disk group 150 or greater. The default is HDD.
To specify a media type, specify the vxassist command with the mediatype
attribute. If no mediatype is specified, the volume allocates storage only from the
HDD devices.

Ordered allocation gives you complete control of space allocation. It requires that
the number of disks that you specify to the vxassist command must match the
147

number of disks that are required to create a volume. The order in which you specify
the disks to vxassist is also significant.
If you specify the -o ordered option to vxassist when creating a volume, any
storage that you also specify is allocated in the following order:
Concatenate disks
Form columns
Form mirrors
For example, the following command creates a mirrored-stripe volume with 3

columns and 2 mirrors on 6 disks in the disk group, mydg:
# vxassist -b -g mydg -o ordered make mirstrvol 10g \
layout=mirror-stripe ncol=3 mydg01 mydg02 mydg03 \
mydg04 mydg05 mydg06
This command places columns 1, 2, and 3 of the first mirror on disks mydg01, mydg02,
and mydg03 respectively, and columns 1, 2, and 3 of the second mirror on disks
mydg04, mydg05, and mydg06 respectively.
Figure 6-1 shows an example of using ordered allocation to create a mirrored-stripe
volume.
Figure 6-1
Example of using ordered allocation to create a mirrored-stripe

volume
column 1
column 2
column 3
mydg01-01
mydg02-01
mydg03-01
Mirrored-stripe
volume
Striped
plex
Mirror
column 1
mydg04-01
column 2
mydg05-01
column 3
mydg06-01
Striped
plex
For layered volumes, vxassist applies the same rules to allocate storage as for
non-layered volumes. For example, the following command creates a striped-mirror
volume with 2 columns:
# vxassist -b -g mydg -o ordered make strmirvol 10g \
layout=stripe-mirror ncol=2 mydg01 mydg02 mydg03 mydg04
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This command mirrors column 1 across disks mydg01 and mydg03, and column 2
across disks mydg02 and mydg04.
Figure 6-2 shows an example of using ordered allocation to create a striped-mirror
volume.
Figure 6-2
Example of using ordered allocation to create a striped-mirror

volume
Underlying mirrored volumes

Striped-mirror
volume
column 1
column 2
mydg01-01
mydg02-01
column 1
mydg03-01
column 2
mydg04-01
Mirror
Striped plex
Additionally, you can use the col_switch attribute to specify how to concatenate
space on the disks into columns. For example, the following command creates a
mirrored-stripe volume with 2 columns:
# vxassist -b -g mydg -o ordered make strmir2vol 10g \
layout=mirror-stripe ncol=2 col_switch=3g,2g \
mydg01 mydg02 mydg03 mydg04 mydg05 mydg06 mydg07 mydg08
This command allocates 3 gigabytes from mydg01 and 2 gigabytes from mydg02 to
column 1, and 3 gigabytes from mydg03 and 2 gigabytes from mydg04 to column 2.
The mirrors of these columns are then similarly formed from disks mydg05 through
mydg08.
Figure 6-3 shows an example of using concatenated disk space to create a
mirrored-stripe volume.
149

Example of using concatenated disk space to create a mirrored-stripe

volume
Figure 6-3
column 1
column 2
mydg01-01
mydg03-01
mydg02-01
mydg04-01
column 1
column 1
mydg05-01
mydg07-01
mydg06-01
mydg08-01
Mirrored-stripe
volume
Striped
plex
Mirror
Striped
plex
Other storage specification classes for controllers, enclosures, targets and trays
can be used with ordered allocation. For example, the following command creates
a 3-column mirrored-stripe volume between specified controllers:
# vxassist -b -g mydg -o ordered make mirstr2vol 80g \
layout=mirror-stripe ncol=3 \
ctlr:c1 ctlr:c2 ctlr:c3 ctlr:c4 ctlr:c5 ctlr:c6
This command allocates space for column 1 from disks on controllers c1, for column
2 from disks on controller c2, and so on.
Figure 6-4 shows an example of using storage allocation to create a mirrored-stripe
volume across controllers.
Example of storage allocation used to create a mirrored-stripe
volume across controllers
Figure 6-4
c1
c2
c3
Controllers
Mirrored-stripe volume
column 1
column 2
column 3
column 1
column 2
column 3
Striped plex
Mirror
Striped plex
c4
c5
c6
Controllers
150

There are other ways in which you can control how vxassist lays out mirrored
volumes across controllers.
In a Remote Mirror configuration (also known as a campus cluster or stretch cluster),
the hosts and storage of a cluster are divided between two or more sites. These
sites are typically connected through a redundant high-capacity network that provides
access to storage and private link communication between the cluster nodes.
Configure the disk group in a Remote Mirror site to be site-consistent. When you
create volumes in such a disk group, the volumes are mirrored across all sites by
default.

Veritas Volume Manager (VxVM) offers the choice of the following read policies on
the data plexes in a mirrored volume:
round
Reads each plex in turn in round-robin fashion for each

nonsequential I/O detected. Sequential access causes only
one plex to be accessed. This approach takes advantage of
the drive or controller read-ahead caching policies.
prefer
Reads first from a plex that has been named as the preferred
plex.
select
Chooses a default policy based on plex associations to the

volume. If the volume has an enabled striped plex, the
select option defaults to preferring that plex; otherwise, it
defaults to round-robin.
For disk group versions 150 or higher and if there is a SSD
based plex available, it will be preferred over other plexes.
siteread
Reads preferentially from plexes at the locally defined site.

This method is the default policy for volumes in disk groups
where site consistency has been enabled.
For disk group versions 150 or higher and if the local site has
a SSD based plex, it will be preferred.
split
Divides the read requests and distributes them across all the
available plexes.
151

Note: You cannot set the read policy on a RAID-5 volume.

To set the read policy to round, use the following command:
# vxvol [-g diskgroup] rdpol round volume
For example, to set the read policy for the volume vol01 in disk group mydg to
round-robin, use the following command:
# vxvol -g mydg rdpol round vol01
To set the read policy to prefer, use the following command:

# vxvol [-g diskgroup] rdpol prefer volume preferred_plex
For example, to set the policy for vol01 to read preferentially from the plex vol01-02,
# vxvol -g mydg rdpol prefer vol01 vol01-02
To set the read policy to select, use the following command:

# vxvol [-g diskgroup] rdpol select volume
152
Chapter
Creating and mounting

VxFS file systems
Creating a VxFS file system
Converting a file system to VxFS
Mounting a VxFS file system
Unmounting a file system
Resizing a file system
Displaying information on mounted file systems
Identifying file system types
Monitoring free space

The mkfs command creates a VxFS file system by writing to a special character
device file. The special character device must be a Veritas Volume Manager (VxVM)
volume. The mkfs command builds a file system with a root directory and a
lost+found directory.
Before running mkfs, you must create the target device.
See to your operating system documentation.
If you are using a logical device (such as a VxVM volume), see the VxVM
documentation.
Creating and mounting VxFS file systems

Note: Creating a VxFS file system on a Logical Volume Manager (LVM) or Multiple
Device (MD) driver volume is not supported in this release. You also must convert
an underlying LVM to a VxVM volume before converting an ext2 or ext3 file system
to a VxFS file system. See the vxvmconvert(1M) manual page.
See the mkfs(1M) and mkfs_vxfs(1M) manual pages.
When you create a file system with the mkfs command, you can select the following
characteristics:
File system block size
Intent log size
To create a file system
Use the mkfs command to create a file system:

/opt/VRTS/bin/mkfs [-t vxfs] [generic_options]
[-o specific_options] special [size]
-t vxfs
Specifies the VxFS file system type.
-m
Displays the command line that was used to create the file
system. The file system must already exist. This option enables
you to determine the parameters used to construct the file
system.
generic_options
Options common to most other file system types.
-o specific_options
Options specific to VxFS.
-o N
Displays the geometry of the file system and does not write
to the device.
-o largefiles
Allows users to create files larger than two gigabytes. The

default option is largefiles.
special
Specifies the special device file location or character device

node of a particular storage device. The device must be a
Veritas Volume Manager volume.
size
Specifies the number of 512-byte sectors in the file system.

If size is not specified, mkfs determines the size of the special
device.
The following example creates a VxFS file system of 12288 sectors in size on a
VxVM volume.
154

155
To create a VxFS file system
Create the file system:

# /opt/VRTS/bin/mkfs /dev/vx/rdsk/diskgroup/volume 12288
version 10 layout
134217728 sectors, 67108864 blocks of size 1024, log size 65536 blocks
rcq size
4096 blocks
largefiles supported
maxlink
supported
Mount the newly created file system:

# mount -t vxfs /dev/vx/dsk/diskgroup/volume /mnt1
File system block size

The unit of allocation in VxFS is an extent. Unlike some other UNIX file systems,
VxFS does not make use of block fragments for allocation because storage is
allocated in extents that consist of one or more blocks. You specify the block size
when creating a file system by using the mkfs -o bsize option. The block size
cannot be altered after the file system is created. The smallest available block size
for VxFS is 1 KB.
The default block size is 1024 bytes for file systems smaller than 1 TB, and 8192
bytes for file systems 1 TB or larger.
Choose a block size based on the type of application being run. For example, if
there are many small files, a 1 KB block size may save space. For large file systems,
with relatively few files, a larger block size is more appropriate. Larger block sizes
use less disk space in file system overhead, but consume more space for files that
are not a multiple of the block size. The easiest way to judge which block sizes
provide the greatest system efficiency is to try representative system loads against
various sizes and pick the fastest.
Intent log size

You specify the intent log size when creating a file system by using the mkfs -o
logsize option.You can dynamically increase or decrease the intent log size using
the logsize option of the fsadm command. The mkfs utility uses a default intent
log size of 64 megabytes. The default size is sufficient for most workloads. If the
system is used as an NFS server or for intensive synchronous write workloads,
performance may be improved using a larger log size.
See the fsadm_vxfs(1M) and mkfs_vxfs(1M) manual pages.

With larger intent log sizes, recovery time is proportionately longer and the file
system may consume more system resources (such as memory) during normal
operation.
There are several system performance benchmark suites for which VxFS performs
better with larger log sizes. As with block sizes, the best way to pick the log size is
to try representative system loads against various sizes and pick the fastest.

The vxfsconvert command can be used to convert a ext2 or ext3 file system to a
VxFS file system.
See the vxfsconvert(1M) manual page.
To convert a ext2 or ext3 file system to a VxFS file system
Use the vxfsconvert command to convert a ext2 or ext3 file system to VxFS:
vxfsconvert [-l logsize] [-s size] [-efnNvyY] special
-e
Estimates the amount of space required to complete the conversion.
-f
Displays the list of supported file system types.
-l logsize
Specifies the size of the file system intent log.
-n|N
Assumes a no response to all questions asked by vxfsconvert.
-s size
Directs vxfsconvert to use free disk space past the current end of the
file system to store VxFS metadata.
-v
Specifies verbose mode.
-y|Y
Assumes a yes response to all questions asked by vxfsconvert.
special
Specifies the name of the character (raw) device that contains the file
system to convert.
The following example converts a ext2 or ext3 file system to a VxFS file system
with an intent log size of 16384 blocks.
To convert an ext2 or ext3 file system to a VxFS file system
Convert the file system:

# vxfsconvert -l 16384 /dev/vx/rdsk/diskgroup/volume
156


You can mount a VxFS file system by using the mount command. When you enter
the mount command, the generic mount command parses the arguments and the
-t FSType option executes the mount command specific to that file system type.
If the -t option is not supplied, the command searches the file /etc/fstab for a
file system and an FSType matching the special file or mount point provided. If no
file system type is specified, mount uses the default file system.
The mount command automatically runs the VxFS fsck command to clean up the
intent log if the mount command detects a dirty log in the file system. This
functionality is only supported on file systems mounted on a Veritas Volume Manager
(VxVM) volume.
In addition to the standard mount mode (delaylog mode), Veritas File System
(VxFS) provides the following mount options for you to specify other modes of
operation:
log mount option
delaylog mount option
tmplog mount option
logiosize mount option
nodatainlog mount option
blkclear mount option
mincache mount option
convosync mount option
ioerror mount option
largefiles and nolargefiles mount options
cio mount option
mntlock mount option
ckptautomnt mount option
Caching behavior can be altered with the mincache option, and the behavior of
O_SYNC and D_SYNC writes can be altered with the convosync option.
See the fcntl(2) manual page.
The delaylog and tmplog modes can significantly improve performance. The
improvement over log mode is typically about 15 to 20 percent with delaylog; with
tmplog, the improvement is even higher. Performance improvement varies,
157

depending on the operations being performed and the workload. Read/write intensive
loads should show less improvement, while file system structure intensive loads,
such as mkdir, create, and rename, may show over 100 percent improvement.
The best way to select a mode is to test representative system loads against the
logging modes and compare the performance results.
Most of the modes can be used in combination. For example, a desktop machine
might use both the blkclear and mincache=closesync modes.
The mount command automatically runs the VxFS fsck command to clean up the
intent log if the mount command detects a dirty log in the file system. This
functionality is only supported on file systems mounted on a Veritas Volume Manager
(VxVM) volume.
To mount a file system
Use the mount command to mount a file system:

mount [-t vxfs] [generic_options] [-r] [-o specific_options] \
special mount_point
vxfs
File system type.
generic_options
Options common to most other file system types.
specific_options
Options specific to VxFS.
-o ckpt=ckpt_name Mounts a Storage Checkpoint.

-o cluster
Mounts a file system in shared mode. Available only with the VxFS
cluster file system feature.
special
A VxFS block special device.
mount_point
Directory on which to mount the file system.
-r
Mounts the file system as read-only.
The following example mounts the file system /dev/vx/dsk/fsvol/vol1 on the

/mnt1 directory with read/write access and delayed logging.
Example of mounting a file system
Mount the file system /dev/vx/dsk/fsvol/vol1 on the /mnt1 directory with

read/write access and delayed logging:
# mount -t vxfs -o delaylog /dev/vx/dsk/fsvol/vol1 /mnt1
158

log mount option

File systems are typically asynchronous in that structural changes to the file system
are not immediately written to disk, which provides better performance. However,
recent changes made to a system can be lost if a system failure occurs. Specifically,
attribute changes to files and recently created files may disappear. In log mode, all
system calls other than write(2), writev(2), and pwrite(2) are guaranteed to be
persistent after the system call returns to the application.
The rename(2) system call flushes the source file to disk to guarantee the persistence
of the file data before renaming it. In both the log and delaylog modes, the rename
is also guaranteed to be persistent when the system call returns. This benefits shell
scripts and programs that try to update a file atomically by writing the new file
contents to a temporary file and then renaming it on top of the target file.
delaylog mount option

The default logging mode is delaylog, in which writing to a file is delayed, or
buffered, meaning that the data to be written is copied to the file system cache and
later flushed to disk. In delaylog mode, the effects of most system calls other than
write(2), writev(2), and pwrite(2) are guaranteed to be persistent approximately
three seconds after the system call returns to the application. Contrast this with the
behavior of most other file systems in which most system calls are not persistent
until approximately 30 seconds or more after the call has returned. Fast file system
recovery works with this mode.
A delayed write provides much better performance than synchronously writing the
data to disk. However, in the event of a system failure, data written shortly before
the failure may be lost since it was not flushed to disk. In addition, if space was
allocated to the file as part of the write request, and the corresponding data was
not flushed to disk before the system failure occurred, uninitialized data can appear
in the file.
For the most common type of write, delayed extending writes (a delayed write that
increases the file size), VxFS avoids the problem of uninitialized data appearing in
the file by waiting until the data has been flushed to disk before updating the new
file size to disk. If a system failure occurs before the data has been flushed to disk,
the file size has not yet been updated, thus no uninitialized data appears in the file.
The unused blocks that were allocated are reclaimed.
The rename(2) system call flushes the source file to disk to guarantee the persistence
of the file data before renaming it. In the log and delaylog modes, the rename is
also guaranteed to be persistent when the system call returns. This benefits shell
scripts and programs that try to update a file atomically by writing the new file
contents to a temporary file and then renaming it on top of the target file.
159

tmplog mount option

In tmplog mode, the effects of system calls have persistence guarantees that are
similar to those in delaylog mode. In addition, enhanced flushing of delayed
extending writes is disabled, which results in better performance but increases the
chances of data being lost or uninitialized data appearing in a file that was being
actively written at the time of a system failure. This mode is only recommended for
temporary file systems. Fast file system recovery works with this mode.
Note: The term "effects of system calls" refers to changes to file system data and
metadata caused by a system call, excluding changes to st_atime.
See the stat(2) manual page.
Logging mode persistence guarantees

In all logging modes, VxFS is fully POSIX compliant. The effects of the fsync(2)
and fdatasync(2) system calls are guaranteed to be persistent after the calls return.
The persistence guarantees for data or metadata modified by write(2), writev(2),
or pwrite(2) are not affected by the logging mount options. The effects of these
system calls are guaranteed to be persistent only if the O_SYNC, O_DSYNC, VX_DSYNC,
or VX_DIRECT flag, as modified by the convosync= mount option, has been specified
for the file descriptor.
The behavior of NFS servers on a VxFS file system is unaffected by the log and
tmplog mount options, but not delaylog. In all cases except for tmplog, VxFS
complies with the persistency requirements of the NFS v2 and NFS v3 standard.
Unless a UNIX application has been developed specifically for the VxFS file system
in log mode, it expects the persistence guarantees offered by most other file systems
and experiences improved robustness when used with a VxFS file system mounted
in delaylog mode. Applications that expect better persistence guarantees than
that offered by most other file systems can benefit from the log, mincache=, and
closesync mount options. However, most commercially available applications work
well with the default VxFS mount options, including the delaylog mode.
logiosize mount option

The logiosize=size option enhances the performance of storage devices that
employ a read-modify-write feature. If you specify logiosize when you mount a
file system, VxFS writes the intent log in the least size bytes or a multiple of size
bytes to obtain the maximum performance from such devices.
160


The values for size can be 512, 1024, 2048, 4096, or 8192.
nodatainlog mount option

Use the nodatainlog mode on systems with disks that do not support bad block
revectoring. Usually, a VxFS file system uses the intent log for synchronous writes.
The inode update and the data are both logged in the transaction, so a synchronous
write only requires one disk write instead of two. When the synchronous write returns
to the application, the file system has told the application that the data is already
written. If a disk error causes the metadata update to fail, then the file must be
marked bad and the entire file is lost.
If a disk supports bad block revectoring, then a failure on the data update is unlikely,
so logging synchronous writes should be allowed. If the disk does not support bad
block revectoring, then a failure is more likely, so the nodatainlog mode should
be used.
A nodatainlog mode file system is approximately 50 percent slower than a standard
mode VxFS file system for synchronous writes. Other operations are not affected.
blkclear mount option

The blkclear mode is used in increased data security environments. The blkclear
mode guarantees that uninitialized storage never appears in files. The increased
integrity is provided by clearing extents on disk when they are allocated within a
file. This mode does not affect extending writes. A blkclear mode file system is
approximately 10 percent slower than a standard mode VxFS file system, depending
on the workload.
mincache mount option

The mincache mode has the following suboptions:
mincache=closesync
mincache=direct
mincache=dsync
mincache=unbuffered
mincache=tmpcache
The mincache=closesync mode is useful in desktop environments where users

are likely to shut off the power on the machine without halting it first. In this mode,
any changes to the file are flushed to disk when the file is closed.
161

To improve performance, most file systems do not synchronously update data and
inode changes to disk. If the system crashes, files that have been updated within
the past minute are in danger of losing data. With the mincache=closesync mode,
if the system crashes or is switched off, only open files can lose data. A
mincache=closesync mode file system could be approximately 15 percent slower
than a standard mode VxFS file system, depending on the workload.
The following describes where to use the mincache modes:
The mincache=direct, mincache=unbuffered, and mincache=dsync modes

are used in environments where applications have reliability problems caused
by the kernel buffering of I/O and delayed flushing of non-synchronous I/O.
The mincache=direct and mincache=unbuffered modes guarantee that all

non-synchronous I/O requests to files are handled as if the VX_DIRECT or
VX_UNBUFFERED caching advisories had been specified.
The mincache=dsync mode guarantees that all non-synchronous I/O requests

to files are handled as if the VX_DSYNC caching advisory had been specified.
Refer to the vxfsio(7) manual page for explanations of VX_DIRECT,
VX_UNBUFFERED, and VX_DSYNC, as well as for the requirements for direct I/O.
The mincache=direct, mincache=unbuffered, and mincache=dsync modes

also flush file data on close as mincache=closesync does.
Because the mincache=direct, mincache=unbuffered, and mincache=dsync

modes change non-synchronous I/O to synchronous I/O, throughput can substantially
degrade for small to medium size files with most applications. Since the VX_DIRECT
and VX_UNBUFFERED advisories do not allow any caching of data, applications that
normally benefit from caching for reads usually experience less degradation with
the mincache=dsync mode. mincache=direct and mincache=unbuffered require
significantly less CPU time than buffered I/O.
If performance is more important than data integrity, you can use the
mincache=tmpcache mode. The mincache=tmpcache mode disables special delayed
extending write handling, trading off less integrity for better performance. Unlike
the other mincache modes, tmpcache does not flush the file to disk when the file is
closed. When the mincache=tmpcache option is used, bad data can appear in a
file that was being extended when a crash occurred.
convosync mount option

The convosync (convert osync) mode has the following suboptions:
convosync=closesync
162

Note: The convosync=closesync mode converts synchronous and data

synchronous writes to non-synchronous writes and flushes the changes to the
file to disk when the file is closed.
convosync=delay
convosync=direct
convosync=dsync
Note: The convosync=dsync option violates POSIX guarantees for synchronous

I/O.
convosync=unbuffered
The convosync=delay mode causes synchronous and data synchronous writes to

be delayed rather than to take effect immediately. No special action is performed
when closing a file. This option effectively cancels any data integrity guarantees
normally provided by opening a file with O_SYNC.
See the open(2), fcntl(2), and vxfsio(7) manual pages.
Warning: Be very careful when using the convosync=closesync or convosync=delay
mode because they actually change synchronous I/O into non-synchronous I/O.
Applications that use synchronous I/O for data reliability may fail if the system
crashes and synchronously-written data is lost.
The convosync=dsync mode converts synchronous writes to data synchronous
writes.
As with closesync, the direct, unbuffered, and dsync modes flush changes to
the file to disk when it is closed. These modes can be used to speed up applications
that use synchronous I/O. Many applications that are concerned with data integrity
specify the O_SYNC fcntl in order to write the file data synchronously. However, this
has the undesirable side effect of updating inode times and therefore slowing down
performance. The convosync=dsync, convosync=unbuffered, and
convosync=direct modes alleviate this problem by allowing applications to take
advantage of synchronous writes without modifying inode times as well.
Before using convosync=dsync, convosync=unbuffered, or convosync=direct,
make sure that all applications that use the file system do not require synchronous
inode time updates for O_SYNC writes.
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ioerror mount option

This mode sets the policy for handling I/O errors on a mounted file system. I/O
errors can occur while reading or writing file data or metadata. The file system can
respond to these I/O errors either by halting or by gradually degrading. The ioerror
option provides five policies that determine how the file system responds to the
various errors. All policies limit data corruption, either by stopping the file system
or by marking a corrupted inode as bad.
The policies are as follows:
disable policy
nodisable policy
wdisable policy and mwdisable policy
mdisable policy
disable policy
If disable is selected, VxFS disables the file system after detecting any I/O error.
You must then unmount the file system and correct the condition causing the I/O
error. After the problem is repaired, run fsck and mount the file system again. In
most cases, replay fsck to repair the file system. A full fsck is required only in
cases of structural damage to the file system's metadata. Select disable in
environments where the underlying storage is redundant, such as RAID-5 or mirrored
disks.
nodisable policy
If nodisable is selected, when VxFS detects an I/O error, it sets the appropriate
error flags to contain the error, but continues running. Note that the degraded
condition indicates possible data or metadata corruption, not the overall performance
of the file system.
For file data read and write errors, VxFS sets the VX_DATAIOERR flag in the
super-block. For metadata read errors, VxFS sets the VX_FULLFSCK flag in the
super-block. For metadata write errors, VxFS sets the VX_FULLFSCK and
VX_METAIOERR flags in the super-block and may mark associated metadata as bad
on disk. VxFS then prints the appropriate error messages to the console.
You should stop the file system as soon as possible and repair the condition causing
the I/O error. After the problem is repaired, run fsck and mount the file system
again. Select nodisable if you want to implement the policy that most closely
resembles the error handling policy of the previous VxFS release.
164

wdisable policy and mwdisable policy

If wdisable (write disable) or mwdisable (metadata-write disable) is selected, the
file system is disabled or degraded, depending on the type of error encountered.
Select wdisable or mwdisable for environments where read errors are more likely
to persist than write errors, such as when using non-redundant storage. mwdisable
is the default ioerror mount option for local mounts.
Note: The mirrored volume file system is not disabled when wdisable or mwdisable
is selected, if the problem occurs when there is only one plex.
mdisable policy
If mdisable (metadata disable) is selected, the file system is disabled if a metadata
read or write fails. However, the file system continues to operate if the failure is
confined to data extents. mdisable is the default ioerror mount option for cluster
mounts.
largefiles and nolargefiles mount options

Veritas File System (VxFS) supports sparse files up to 16 terabytes, and non-sparse
files up to 2 terabytes - 1 kilobyte.
Note: Applications and utilities such as backup may experience problems if they
are not aware of large files. In such a case, create your file system without large
file capability.
See Creating a file system with large files on page 165.
See Mounting a file system with large files on page 166.
See Managing a file system with large files on page 166.
Creating a file system with large files

To create a file system with large file capability:
# mkfs -t vxfs -o largefiles special_device size
Specifying largefiles sets the largefiles flag. This enables the file system to
hold files that are two gigabytes or larger. This is the default option.
To clear the flag and prevent large files from being created:
165

# mkfs -t vxfs -o nolargefiles special_device size
The largefiles flag is persistent and stored on disk.
Mounting a file system with large files

If a mount succeeds and nolargefiles is specified, the file system cannot contain
or create any large files. If a mount succeeds and largefiles is specified, the file
system may contain and create large files.
The mount command fails if the specified largefiles|nolargefiles option does
not match the on-disk flag.
Because the mount command defaults to match the current setting of the on-disk
flag if specified without the largefiles or nolargefiles option, the best practice
is not to specify either option. After a file system is mounted, you can use the fsadm
utility to change the large files option.
Managing a file system with large files

Managing a file system with large files includes the following tasks:
Determining the current status of the large files flag
Switching capabilities on a mounted file system
Switching capabilities on an unmounted file system
To determine the current status of the largefiles flag, type either of the following
commands:
# mkfs -t vxfs -m special_device
# /opt/VRTS/bin/fsadm mount_point | special_device
To switch capabilities on a mounted file system:

# /opt/VRTS/bin/fsadm -o [no]largefiles mount_point
To switch capabilities on an unmounted file system:

# /opt/VRTS/bin/fsadm -o [no]largefiles special_device
You cannot change a file system to nolargefiles if it contains large files.

See the mount_vxfs(1M), fsadm_vxfs(1M), and mkfs_vxfs(1M) manual pages.
166

cio mount option

The cio (Concurrent I/O) option specifies the file system to be mounted for
concurrent reads and writes. Concurrent I/O is a separately licensed feature of
VxFS. If cio is specified, but the license is not present, the mount command prints
an error message and terminates the operation without mounting the file system.
The cio option cannot be disabled through a remount. To disable the cio option,
the file system must be unmounted and mounted again without the cio option.
Note: There is no separate license required for the cio option, it is a part of the
standard license.
mntlock mount option

The mntlock option prevents a file system from being unmounted by an application.
This option is useful for applications that do not want the file systems that the
applications are monitoring to be improperly unmounted by other applications or
administrators.
The mntunlock option of the vxumount command reverses the mntlock option if
you previously locked the file system.
ckptautomnt mount option

The ckptautomnt option enables the Storage Checkpoint visibility feature, which
makes Storage Checkpoints easier to access.
See Storage Checkpoint visibility on page 320.
Combining mount command options

Although mount options can be combined arbitrarily, some combinations do not
make sense. The following examples provide some common and reasonable mount
option combinations.
To mount a desktop file system using options:
# mount -t vxfs -o log,mincache=closesync \
/dev/vx/dsk/diskgroup/volume /mnt
This guarantees that when a file is closed, its data is synchronized to disk and
cannot be lost. Thus, after an application has exited and its files are closed, no data
is lost even if the system is immediately turned off.
To mount a temporary file system or to restore from backup:
167

# mount -t vxfs -o tmplog,convosync=delay,mincache=tmpcache \

This combination might be used for a temporary file system where performance is
more important than absolute data integrity. Any O_SYNC writes are performed as
delayed writes and delayed extending writes are not handled. This could result in
a file that contains corrupted data if the system crashes. Any file written 30 seconds
or so before a crash may contain corrupted data or be missing if this mount
combination is in effect. However, such a file system does significantly less disk
writes than a log file system, and should have significantly better performance,
depending on the application.
To mount a file system for synchronous writes:
# mount -t vxfs -o log,convosync=dsync \
This combination can be used to improve the performance of applications that

perform O_SYNC writes, but only require data synchronous write semantics.
Performance can be significantly improved if the file system is mounted using
convosync=dsync without any loss of data integrity.

Use the umount command to unmount a currently mounted file system.
See the vxumount(1M) manual page.
To unmount a file system
Use the umount command to unmount a file system:

Specify the file system to be unmounted as a mount_point or special. special
is the VxFS block special device on which the file system resides.
The following is an example of unmounting a file system.

Example of unmounting a file system
Unmount the file system /dev/vx/dsk/fsvol/vol1:

# umount /dev/vx/dsk/fsvol/vol1

You can extend or shrink mounted VxFS file systems using the fsadm command.
The size to which a file system can be increased depends on the file system disk
168

layout version. A file system using the Version 7 or later disk layout can be up to
256 terabytes in size. The size to which a Version 7 or later disk layout file system
can be increased depends on the file system block size.
See the fsadm_vxfs(1M) and fdisk(8) manual pages.
Extending a file system using fsadm

You can resize a file system by using the fsadm command.
To resize a VxFS file system
Use the fsadm command to extend a VxFS file system:

fsadm [-t vxfs] [-b newsize] [-r rawdev] \
mount_point
vxfs
The file system type.
newsize
The size to which the file system will increase. The default units is
sectors, but you can specify k or K for kilobytes, m or M for megabytes,
or g or G for gigabytes.
mount_point
The file system's mount point.
-r rawdev
Specifies the path name of the raw device if there is no entry in

/etc/fstab and fsadm cannot determine the raw device.
The following example extends a file system mounted at /mnt1 to 22528 sectors.
Example of extending a file system to 22528 sectors
Extend the VxFS file system mounted on /mnt1 to 22528 sectors:

# fsadm -t vxfs -b 22528 /mnt1
The following example extends a file system mounted at /mnt1 to 500 gigabytes.
Example of extending a file system to 500 gigabytes
Extend the VxFS file system mounted on /mnt1 to 500 gigabytes:

# fsadm -t vxfs -b +500g /mnt1
169

Shrinking a file system

You can decrease the size of the file system using fsadm, even while the file system
is mounted.
Warning: After this operation, there is unused space at the end of the device. You
can then resize the device, but be careful not to make the device smaller than the
new size of the file system.
To decrease the size of a VxFS file system
Use the fsadm command to decrease the size of a VxFS file system:
fsadm
[-t vxfs] [-b newsize] [-r rawdev] mount_point
vxfs
newsize
The size to which the file system will shrink. The default units is
sectors, but you can specify k or K for kilobytes, m or M for
megabytes, or g or G for gigabytes.
mount_point
-r rawdev

The following example shrinks a VxFS file system mounted at /mnt1 to 20480
sectors.
Example of shrinking a file system to 20480 sectors
Shrink a VxFS file system mounted at /mnt1 to 20480 sectors:

# fsadm -t vxfs -b 20480 /mnt1
The following example shrinks a file system mounted at /mnt1 to 450 gigabytes.
Example of shrinking a file system to 450 gigabytes
Shrink the VxFS file system mounted on /mnt1 to 450 gigabytes:

# fsadm -t vxfs -b 450g /mnt1
170

171
Reorganizing a file system

You can reorganize or compact a fragmented file system using fsadm, even while
the file system is mounted. This may help shrink a file system that could not
previously be decreased.
To reorganize a VxFS file system
Use the fsadm command to reorganize a VxFS file system:

fsadm [-t vxfs] [-e] [-d] [-E] [-D] [-H] [-r rawdev] mount_point
vxfs
-d
Reorders directory entries to put subdirectory entries first, then all

other entries in decreasing order of time of last access. Also
compacts directories to remove free space.
-D
Reports on directory fragmentation.
-e
Minimizes file system fragmentation. Files are reorganized to have

the minimum number of extents.
-E
Reports on extent fragmentation.
-H
Displays the storage size in human-friendly units

(KB/MB/GB/TB/PB/EB), when used with the -E and -D options.
mount_point
-r rawdev

To perform free space defragmentation
Use the fsadm command to perform free space defragmentation of a VxFS file
system:
fsadm [-t vxfs] [-C] mount_point
vxfs
-C
Minimizes file system free space fragmentation. This attempts to

generate bigger chunks of free space in the device.
mount_point
The following example reorganizes the file system mounted at /mnt1.

Example of reorganizing a VxFS file system
Reorganize the VxFS file system mounted at /mnt1:

# fsadm -t vxfs -EeDd /mnt1
The following example minimizes the free space fragmentation of the file system
mounted at /mnt1.
Example of running free space defragmentation
Minimize the free space of the the VxFS file system mounted at /mnt1:
# fsadm -t vxfs -C /mnt1

Use the mount command to display a list of currently mounted file systems.
See the mount_vxfs(1M) and mount(8) manual pages.
To view the status of mounted file systems
Use the mount command to view the status of mounted file systems:
mount
This shows the file system type and mount options for all mounted file systems.
The following example displays information on mounted file systems by invoking
the mount command without options.
To display information on mounted file systems
Invoke the mount command without options:

# mount
/dev/sda3 on / type ext3 (rw,acl,user_xattr)
proc on /proc type proc (rw)
sysfs on /sys type sysfs (rw)
/dev/vx/dsk/testdg/vol01 on /vol01_testdg type vxfs
(rw,delaylog,largefiles,ioerror=mwdisable)
172


Use the fstyp command to determine the file system type for a specified file system.
This is useful when a file system was created elsewhere and you want to know its
type.
See the fstyp_vxfs(1M) manual page.
To determine a file system's type
Use the fstyp command to determine a file system's type:

fstyp -v special
special
The block or character (raw) device.
-v
Specifies the device that needs to be checked.
The following example uses the fstyp command to determine the file system type
of the /dev/vx/dsk/fsvol/vol1 device.
173

To determine the file system's type
Use the fstyp command to determine the file system type of the device
/dev/vx/dsk/fsvol/vol1:
# fstyp -v /dev/vx/dsk/fsvol/vol1
The output indicates that the file system type is vxfs, and displays file system
information similar to the following:
vxfs
magic a501fcf5 version 7 ctime Tue Jun 23 18:29:39 2004
logstart 17 logend 1040
bsize 1024 size 1048576 dsize 1047255 ninode 0 nau 8
defiextsize 64 ilbsize 0 immedlen 96 ndaddr 10
aufirst 1049 emap 2 imap 0 iextop 0 istart 0
bstart 34 femap 1051 fimap 0 fiextop 0 fistart 0 fbstart
1083
nindir 2048 aulen 131106 auimlen 0 auemlen 32
auilen 0 aupad 0 aublocks 131072 maxtier 17
inopb 4 inopau 0 ndiripau 0 iaddrlen 8
bshift 10
inoshift 2 bmask fffffc00 boffmask 3ff checksum d7938aa1
oltext1 9 oltext2 1041 oltsize 8 checksum2 52a
free 382614 ifree 0
efree 676 413 426 466 612 462 226 112 85 35 14 3 6 5 4 4 0 0

In general, Veritas File System (VxFS) works best if the percentage of free space
in the file system does not get below 10 percent. This is because file systems with
10 percent or more free space have less fragmentation and better extent allocation.
Regular use of the df command to monitor free space is desirable.
See the df_vxfs(1M) manual page.
Full file systems may have an adverse effect on file system performance. Full file
systems should therefore have some files removed, or should be expanded.
VxFS supports reclamation of free storage on a Thin Storage LUN.
See About Thin Reclamation of a file system on page 431.
174

Monitoring fragmentation
Fragmentation reduces performance and availability. Symantec recommends regular
use of the fragmentation reporting and reorganization facilities of the fsadm
command.
The easiest way to ensure that fragmentation does not become a problem is to
schedule regular defragmentation runs using the cron command.
Defragmentation scheduling should range from weekly (for frequently used file
systems) to monthly (for infrequently used file systems). Extent fragmentation should
be monitored with the fsadm command.
To determine the degree of fragmentation, use the following factors:
Percentage of free space in extents of less than 8 blocks in length
Percentage of free space in extents of less than 64 blocks in length
Percentage of free space in extents of length 64 blocks or greater
An unfragmented file system has the following characteristics:
Less than 1 percent of free space in extents of less than 8 blocks in length
Less than 5 percent of free space in extents of less than 64 blocks in length
More than 5 percent of the total file system size available as free extents in
lengths of 64 or more blocks
A badly-fragmented file system has one or more of the following characteristics:
Greater than 5 percent of free space in extents of less than 8 blocks in length
More than 50 percent of free space in extents of less than 64 blocks in length
Less than 5 percent of the total file system size available as free extents in
lengths of 64 or more blocks
Fragmentation can also be determined based on the fragmentation index. Two

types of indices are generated by the fsadm command: the file fragmentation index
and the free space fragmentation index. Both of these indices range between 0 and
100, and give an idea about the level of file fragmentation and free space
fragmentation, respectively. A value of 0 for the fragmentation index means that
the file system has no fragmentation, and a value of 100 means that the file system
has the highest level of fragmentation. Based on the index, you should use the
appropriate defragmentation option with the fsadm command. For example if the
file fragmentation index is high, the fsadm command should be run with the -e
option. If the free space fragmentation index is high, the fsadm command should
be run with -C option. When the fsadm command is run with the -e option, internally
it performs free space defragmentation before performing file defragmentaion.
175

The optimal period for scheduling of extent reorganization runs can be determined
by choosing a reasonable interval, scheduling fsadm runs at the initial interval, and
running the extent fragmentation report feature of fsadm before and after the
reorganization.
The before" result is the degree of fragmentation prior to the reorganization. If the
degree of fragmentation is approaching the figures for bad fragmentation, reduce
the interval between fsadm runs. If the degree of fragmentation is low, increase the
interval between fsadm runs.
The after" result is an indication of how well the reorganizer has performed. The
degree of fragmentation should be close to the characteristics of an unfragmented
file system. If not, it may be a good idea to resize the file system; full file systems
tend to fragment and are difficult to defragment. It is also possible that the
reorganization is not being performed at a time during which the file system in
question is relatively idle.
Directory reorganization is not nearly as critical as extent reorganization, but regular
directory reorganization improves performance. It is advisable to schedule directory
reorganization for file systems when the extent reorganization is scheduled. The
following is a sample script that is run periodically at 3:00 A.M. from cron for a
number of file systems:
outfile=/var/spool/fsadm/out./bin/date +'%m%d'
for i in /home /home2 /project /db
do
/bin/echo "Reorganizing $i"
/usr/bin/time /opt/VRTS/bin/fsadm -t vxfs -e -E -s $i
/usr/bin/time /opt/VRTS/bin/fsadm -t vxfs -s -d -D $i
done > $outfile 2>&1
176
Chapter
Extent attributes
About extent attributes
Commands related to extent attributes

Veritas File System (VxFS) allocates disk space to files in groups of one or more
adjacent blocks called extents. VxFS defines an application interface that allows
programs to control various aspects of the extent allocation for a given file. The
extent allocation policies associated with a file are referred to as extent attributes.
The VxFS getext and setext commands let you view or manipulate file extent
attributes.
See the setext(1) and getext(1) manual pages.
The two basic extent attributes associated with a file are its reservation and its fixed
extent size. You can preallocate space to the file by manipulating a file's reservation,
or override the default allocation policy of the file system by setting a fixed extent
size.
See Reservation: preallocating space to a file on page 178.
See Fixed extent size on page 178.
Other policies determine the way these attributes are expressed during the allocation
process.
You can specify the following criteria:
The space reserved for a file must be contiguous
No allocations will be made for a file beyond the current reservation
An unused reservation will be released when the file is closed
Extent attributes
Space will be allocated, but no reservation will be assigned
The file size will be changed to incorporate the allocated space immediately
Some of the extent attributes are persistent and become part of the on-disk
information about the file, while other attributes are temporary and are lost after the
file is closed or the system is rebooted. The persistent attributes are similar to the
file's permissions and are written in the inode for the file. When a file is copied,
moved, or archived, only the persistent attributes of the source file are preserved
in the new file.
See Other extent attribute controls on page 179.
In general, the user will only set extent attributes for reservation. Many of the
attributes are designed for applications that are tuned to a particular pattern of I/O
or disk alignment.
See About Veritas File System I/O on page 290.
Reservation: preallocating space to a file

Veritas File System (VxFS) makes it possible to preallocate space to a file at the
time of the request rather than when data is written into the file. This space cannot
be allocated to other files in the file system. VxFS prevents any unexpected
out-of-space condition on the file system by ensuring that a file's required space
will be associated with the file before it is required.
A persistent reservation is not released when a file is truncated. The reservation
must be cleared or the file must be removed to free the reserved space.
Fixed extent size

The Veritas File System (VxFS) default allocation policy uses a variety of methods
to determine how to make an allocation to a file when a write requires additional
space. The policy attempts to balance the two goals of optimum I/O performance
through large allocations and minimal file system fragmentation. VxFS accomplishes
these goals by allocating from space available in the file system that best fits the
data.
Setting a fixed extent size overrides the default allocation policies for a file and
always serves as a persistent attribute. Be careful to choose an extent size
appropriate to the application when using fixed extents. An advantage of the VxFS
extent-based allocation policies is that they rarely use indirect blocks compared to
block-based file systems; VxFS eliminates many instances of disk access that stem
from indirect references. However, a small extent size can eliminate this advantage.
Files with large extents tend to be more contiguous and have better I/O
characteristics. However, the overall performance of the file system degrades
178
Extent attributes
because the unused space fragments free space by breaking large extents into
smaller pieces. By erring on the side of minimizing fragmentation for the file system,
files may become so non-contiguous that their I/O characteristics would degrade.
Fixed extent sizes are particularly appropriate in the following situations:
If a file is large and sparse and its write size is fixed, a fixed extent size that is
a multiple of the write size can minimize space wasted by blocks that do not
contain user data as a result of misalignment of write and extent sizes. The
default extent size for a sparse file is 8K.
If a file is large and contiguous, a large fixed extent size can minimize the number
of extents in the file.
Custom applications may also use fixed extent sizes for specific reasons, such as
the need to align extents to cylinder or striping boundaries on disk.
How the fixed extent size works with the shared extents
Veritas File System (VxFS) allows the user to set the fixed extent size option on a
file that controls the minimum allocation size of the file. If a file has shared extents
that must be unshared, the allocation that is done as a part of the unshare operation
ignores the fixed extent size option that is set on the file. The allocation size during
the unshare operation, is dependent on the size of the write operation on the shared
region.
Other extent attribute controls

The auxiliary controls on extent attributes determine the following conditions:
Whether allocations are aligned

See Extent attribute alignment on page 180.
Whether allocations are contiguous

See Extent attribute contiguity on page 180.
Whether the file can be written beyond its reservation

See Write operations beyond extent attribute reservation on page 180.
Whether an unused reservation is released when the file is closed

See Extent attribute reservation trimming on page 180.
Whether the reservation is a persistent attribute of the file

See Extent attribute reservation persistence on page 180.
When the space reserved for a file will actually become part of the file
See Including an extent attribute reservation in the file on page 180.
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Extent attributes
Extent attribute alignment

Specific alignment restrictions coordinate a file's allocations with a particular I/O
pattern or disk alignment. Alignment can only be specified if a fixed extent size has
also been set. Setting alignment restrictions on allocations is best left to
well-designed applications.
See the setext(1) manual page.
See About Veritas File System I/O on page 290.
Extent attribute contiguity

A reservation request can specify that its allocation remain contiguous (all one
extent). Maximum contiguity of a file optimizes its I/O characteristics.
Note: Fixed extent sizes or alignment cause a file system to return an error message
reporting insufficient space if no suitably sized (or aligned) extent is available. This
can happen even if the file system has sufficient free space and the fixed extent
size is large.
Write operations beyond extent attribute reservation

A reservation request can specify that no allocations can take place after a write
operation fills the last available block in the reservation. This request can be used
a way similar to the function of the ulimit command to prevent a file's uncontrolled
growth.
Extent attribute reservation trimming

A reservation request can specify that any unused reservation be released when
the file is closed. The file is not completely closed until all processes open against
the file have closed it.
Extent attribute reservation persistence

A reservation request can ensure that the reservation does not become a persistent
attribute of the file. The unused reservation is discarded when the file is closed.
Including an extent attribute reservation in the file

A reservation request can make sure the size of the file is adjusted to include the
reservation. Normally, the space of the reservation is not included in the file until
an extending write operation requires it. A reservation that immediately changes
the file size can generate large temporary files. Unlike a ftruncate operation that
180
Extent attributes
increases the size of a file, this type of reservation does not perform zeroing of the
blocks included in the file and limits this facility to users with appropriate privileges.
The data that appears in the file may have been previously contained in another
file. For users who do not have the appropriate privileges, there is a variant request
that prevents such users from viewing uninitialized data.

The Veritas File System (VxFS) commands for manipulating extent attributes are
setext and getext; they allow the user to set up files with a given set of extent
attributes or view any attributes that are already associated with a file.
See the setext(1) and getext(1) manual pages.
The VxFS-specific commands vxdump and vxrestore preserve extent attributes
when backing up, restoring, moving, or copying files.
Most of these commands include a command-line option (-e) for maintaining extent
attributes on files. You use this option with a VxFS file that has extent attribute
information including reserved space, a fixed extent size, and extent alignment.
The extent attribute information may be lost if the destination file system does not
support extent attributes, has a different block size than the source file system, or
lacks free extents appropriate to satisfy the extent attribute requirements.
The -e option takes any of the following keywords as an argument:
warn
Issues a warning message if extent attribute information cannot be

maintained (the default)
force
Fails the copy if extent attribute information cannot be maintained
ignore
Ignores extent attribute information entirely
The following example creates a file named file1 and preallocates 2 GB of disk
space for the file.
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Extent attributes
Example of setting an extent attribute
Create the file file1:

# touch file1
Preallocate 2 GB of disk space for the file file1:

# setext -t vxfs -r 2g -f chgsize file1
Since the example specifies the -f chgsize option, VxFS immediately

incorporates the reservation into the file and updates the files inode with size
and block count information that is increased to include the reserved space.
Only users with root privileges can use the -f chgsize option.
The following example gets the extent atribute information of a file named file1.
Example of getting an extent attribute's information
Get the extent attribute information for the file file1:

# getext -t vxfs file1
file1: Bsize
1024
Reserve 2097152
Extent Size
The file file1 has a block size of 1024 bytes, 36 blocks reserved, a fixed extent
size of 3 blocks, and all extents aligned to 3 block boundaries. The file size
cannot be increased after the current reservation is exhausted. Reservations
and fixed extent sizes are allocated in units of the file system block size.
About failing to preserve extent attributes

Whenever a file is copied, moved, or archived using commands that preserve extent
attributes, there is the possibility of losing the attributes.
Such a failure might occur for one of the following reasons:
The file system receiving a copied, moved, or restored file from an archive is
not a VxFS file system. Since other file system types do not support the extent
attributes of the VxFS file system, the attributes of the source file are lost during
the migration.
The file system receiving a copied, moved, or restored file is a VxFS type but
does not have enough free space to satisfy the extent attributes. For example,
consider a 50 KB file and a reservation of 1 MB. If the target file system has 500
KB free, it could easily hold the file but fail to satisfy the reservation.
The file system receiving a copied, moved, or restored file from an archive is a
VxFS type but the different block sizes of the source and target file system make
extent attributes impossible to maintain. For example, consider a source file
182
Extent attributes
system of block size 1024, a target file system of block size 4096, and a file that
has a fixed extent size of 3 blocks (3072 bytes). This fixed extent size adapts
to the source file system but cannot translate onto the target file system.
The same source and target file systems in the preceding example with a file
carrying a fixed extent size of 4 could preserve the attribute; a 4 block (4096
byte) extent on the source file system would translate into a 1 block extent on
the target.
On a system with mixed block sizes, a copy, move, or restoration operation may
or may not succeed in preserving attributes. It is recommended that the same
block size be used for all file systems on a given system.
183
Section
Administering multi-pathing
with DMP
Chapter 9. Administering Dynamic Multi-Pathing
Chapter 10. Dynamic Reconfiguration of devices
Chapter 11. Managing devices
Chapter 12. Event monitoring
Chapter
Administering Dynamic
Multi-Pathing
Discovering and configuring newly added disk devices
Making devices invisible to VxVM
Making devices visible to VxVM
About enabling and disabling I/O for controllers and storage processors
About displaying DMP database information
Displaying the paths to a disk
Administering DMP using the vxdmpadm utility

When you physically connect new disks to a host or when you zone new Fibre
Channel devices to a host, you can use the vxdctl enable command to rebuild
the volume device node directories and to update the Dynamic Multi-Pathing (DMP)
internal database to reflect the new state of the system.
To reconfigure the DMP database, first reboot the system to make Linux recognize
the new disks, and then invoke the vxdctl enable command.
You can also use the vxdisk scandisks command to scan devices in the operating
system device tree, and to initiate dynamic reconfiguration of multipathed disks.
If you want SF to scan only for new devices that have been added to the system,
and not for devices that have been enabled or disabled, specify the -f option to
either of the commands, as shown here:
Administering Dynamic Multi-Pathing

# vxdctl -f enable
# vxdisk -f scandisks
However, a complete scan is initiated if the system configuration has been modified
by changes to:
Installed array support libraries.
The list of devices that are excluded from use by VxVM.
DISKS (JBOD), SCSI3, or foreign device definitions.

See the vxdisk(1M) manual page.
Partial device discovery

Dynamic Multi-Pathing (DMP) supports partial device discovery where you can
include or exclude paths to a physical disk from the discovery process.
The vxdisk scandisks command rescans the devices in the OS device tree and
triggers a DMP reconfiguration. You can specify parameters to vxdisk scandisks
to implement partial device discovery. For example, this command makes SF
discover newly added devices that were unknown to it earlier:
# vxdisk scandisks new
The next example discovers fabric devices:

# vxdisk scandisks fabric
The following command scans for the devices sdm and sdn:
# vxdisk scandisks device=sdm,sdn
Alternatively, you can specify a ! prefix character to indicate that you want to scan
for all devices except those that are listed.
Note: The ! character is a special character in some shells. The following examples
show how to escape it in a bash shell.
# vxdisk scandisks \!device=sdm,sdn
You can also scan for devices that are connected (or not connected) to a list of
logical or physical controllers. For example, this command discovers and configures
all devices except those that are connected to the specified logical controllers:
186

# vxdisk scandisks \!ctlr=c1,c2
The next command discovers only those devices that are connected to the specified
physical controller:
# vxdisk scandisks pctlr=c1+c2
The items in a list of physical controllers are separated by + characters.

You can use the command vxdmpadm getctlr all to obtain a list of physical
controllers.
You should specify only one selection argument to the vxdisk scandisks command.
Specifying multiple options results in an error.
About discovering disks and dynamically adding disk arrays

Dynamic Multi-Pathing (DMP) uses array support libraries (ASLs) to provide
array-specific support for multi-pathing. An array support library (ASL) is a
dynamically loadable shared library (plug-in for DDL). The ASL implements
hardware-specific logic to discover device attributes during device discovery. DMP
provides the device discovery layer (DDL) to determine which ASLs should be
associated to each disk array.
In some cases, DMP can also provide basic multi-pathing and failover functionality
by treating LUNs as disks (JBODs).
How DMP claims devices

For fully optimized support of any array and for support of more complicated array
types, Dynamic Multi-Pathing (DMP) requires the use of array-specific array support
libraries (ASLs), possibly coupled with array policy modules (APMs). ASLs and
APMs effectively are array-specific plug-ins that allow close tie-in of DMP with any
specific array model.
See the Hardware Compatibility List for the complete list of supported arrays.
http://www.symantec.com/docs/TECH211575
During device discovery, the DDL checks the installed ASL for each device to find
which ASL claims the device.
If no ASL is found to claim the device, the DDL checks for a corresponding JBOD
definition. You can add JBOD definitions for unsupported arrays to enable DMP to
provide multi-pathing for the array. If a JBOD definition is found, the DDL claims
the devices in the DISKS category, which adds the LUNs to the list of JBOD (physical
187

disk) devices used by DMP. If the JBOD definition includes a cabinet number, DDL
uses the cabinet number to group the LUNs into enclosures.
See Adding unsupported disk arrays to the DISKS category on page 199.
DMP can provide basic multi-pathing to arrays that comply with the Asymmetric
Logical Unit Access (ALUA) standard, even if there is no ASL or JBOD definition.
DDL claims the LUNs as part of the aluadisk enclosure. The array type is shown
as ALUA. Adding a JBOD definition also enables you to group the LUNs into
enclosures.
Disk categories
Disk arrays that have been certified for use with Dynamic Multi-Pathing (DMP) are
supported by an array support library (ASL), and are categorized by the vendor ID
string that is returned by the disks (for example, HITACHI).
Disks in JBODs that are capable of being multi-pathed by DMP, are placed in the
DISKS category. Disks in unsupported arrays can also be placed in the DISKS
category.
See Adding unsupported disk arrays to the DISKS category on page 199.
Disks in JBODs that do not fall into any supported category, and which are not
capable of being multi-pathed by DMP are placed in the OTHER_DISKS category.
Adding support for a new disk array

You can dynamically add support for a new type of disk array. The support comes
in the form of Array Support Libraries (ASLs) that are developed by Symantec.
Symantec provides support for new disk arrays through updates to the VRTSaslapm
rpm. To determine if an updated VRTSaslapm rpm is available for download, refer
to the hardware compatibility list tech note. The hardware compatibility list provides
a link to the latest rpm for download and instructions for installing the VRTSaslapm
rpm. You can upgrade the VRTSaslapm rpm while the system is online; you do not
need to stop the applications.
To access the hardware compatibility list, go to the following URL:
Each VRTSaslapm rpm is specific for the Storage Foundation version. Be sure to
install the VRTSaslapm rpm that supports the installed version of Storage Foundation.
The new disk array does not need to be already connected to the system when the
VRTSaslapm rpm is installed. On a SLES11 system, if any of the disks in the new
disk array are subsequently connected, and if vxconfigd is running, vxconfigd
immediately invokes the DDL device discovery and includes the new disks in the
188

VxVM device list. For other Linux flavors, reboot the system to make Linux recognize
the new disks, and then use the vxdctl enable command to include the new disks
in the VxVM device list.
If you need to remove the latest VRTSaslapm rpm, you can revert to the previously
installed version. For the detailed procedure, refer to the Symantec Storage
Foundation and High Availability Solutions Troubleshooting Guide.
Enabling discovery of new disk arrays

The vxdctl enable command scans all of the disk devices and their attributes,
updates the SF device list, and reconfigures DMP with the new device database.
There is no need to reboot the host.
Warning: This command ensures that Dynamic Multi-Pathing is set up correctly for
the array. Otherwise, VxVM treats the independent paths to the disks as separate
devices, which can result in data corruption.
To enable discovery of a new disk array
Type the following command:

# vxdctl enable
About third-party driver coexistence

The third-party driver (TPD) coexistence feature of Symantec Storage Foundation
(SF) allows I/O that is controlled by some third-party multi-pathing drivers to bypass
Dynamic Multi-Pathing (DMP) while retaining the monitoring capabilities of DMP.
If a suitable Array Support Library (ASL) is available and installed, devices that use
TPDs can be discovered without requiring you to set up a specification file, or to
run a special command. The TPD coexistence feature of SF permits coexistence
without requiring any change in a third-party multi-pathing driver.
See Changing device naming for enclosures controlled by third-party drivers
on page 267.
See Displaying information about devices controlled by third-party drivers
on page 219.
Autodiscovery of EMC Symmetrix arrays

In Veritas Volume Manager (VxVM) 4.0, there were two possible ways to configure
EMC Symmetrix arrays:
189

With EMC PowerPath installed, EMC Symmetrix arrays could be configured as

foreign devices.
See Foreign devices on page 203.
Without EMC PowerPath installed, DMP could be used to perform multi-pathing.
On upgrading a system to VxVM 4.1 or a later release, existing EMC PowerPath

devices can be discovered by the Device Discovery Layer (DDL), and configured
into Dynamic Multi-Pathing (DMP) as autoconfigured disks with DMP nodes, even
if PowerPath is being used to perform multi-pathing. There is no need to configure
such arrays as foreign devices.
Table 9-1 shows the scenarios for using DMP with PowerPath.
The Array Support Libraries (ASLs) are all included in the ASL-APM rpm, which is
installed when you install Storage Foundation products.
Table 9-1
Scenarios for using DMP with PowerPath
PowerPath
DMP
Array configuration
mode
Installed.
The libvxpp ASL handles EMC EMC Symmetrix - Any

Symmetrix arrays and DGC
DGC CLARiiON CLARiiON claiming internally.
Active/Passive (A/P),
PowerPath handles failover.
Active/Passive in Explicit
Failover mode (A/PF)
and ALUA Explicit
failover
Not installed; the array is EMC DMP handles multi-pathing.

Symmetrix.
The ASL name is libvxemc.
Active/Active
Not installed; the array is DGC DMP handles multi-pathing.

CLARiioN (CXn00).
The ASL name is
libvxCLARiiON.
Active/Passive (A/P),
Active/Passive in Explicit
Failover mode (A/PF)
and ALUA
If any EMCpower disks are configured as foreign disks, use the vxddladm
rmforeign command to remove the foreign definitions, as shown in this example:
# vxddladm rmforeign blockpath=/dev/emcpowera10 \
charpath=/dev/emcpowera10
To allow DMP to receive correct inquiry data, the Common Serial Number (C-bit)
Symmetrix Director parameter must be set to enabled.
190

How to administer the Device Discovery Layer

The Device Discovery Layer (DDL) allows dynamic addition of disk arrays. DDL
discovers disks and their attributes that are required for Symantec Storage
Foundation (SF) operations.
The DDL is administered using the vxddladm utility to perform the following tasks:
List the hierarchy of all the devices discovered by DDL including iSCSI devices.
List all the Host Bus Adapters including iSCSI.
List the ports configured on a Host Bus Adapter.
List the targets configured from a Host Bus Adapter.
List the devices configured from a Host Bus Adapter.
Get or set the iSCSI operational parameters.
List the types of arrays that are supported.
Add support for an array to DDL.
Remove support for an array from DDL.
List information about excluded disk arrays.
List disks that are supported in the DISKS (JBOD) category.
Add disks from different vendors to the DISKS category.
Remove disks from the DISKS category.
Add disks as foreign devices.
The following sections explain these tasks in more detail.

Listing all the devices including iSCSI

You can display the hierarchy of all the devices discovered by DDL, including iSCSI
devices.
191

To list all the devices including iSCSI

# vxddladm list
The following is a sample output:

HBA fscsi0 (20:00:00:E0:8B:19:77:BE)
Port fscsi0_p0 (50:0A:09:80:85:84:9D:84)
Target fscsi0_p0_t0 (50:0A:09:81:85:84:9D:84)
Device sda
. . .
HBA iscsi0 (iqn.1986-03.com.sun:01:0003ba8ed1b5.45220f80)
Port iscsi0_p0 (10.216.130.10:3260)
Target iscsi0_p0_t0 (iqn.1992-08.com.netapp:sn.84188548)
Device sdb
Device sdc
Target iscsi0_p0_t1 (iqn.1992-08.com.netapp:sn.84190939)
. . .
Listing all the Host Bus Adapters including iSCSI

You can obtain information about all the Host Bus Adapters (HBAs) configured on
the system, including iSCSI adapters.
Table 9-2 shows the HBA information.
Table 9-2
HBA information
Field
Description
Driver
Driver controlling the HBA.
Firmware
Firmware version.
Discovery
The discovery method employed for the targets.
State
Whether the device is Online or Offline.
Address
The hardware address.
To list all the Host Bus Adapters including iSCSI
Use the following command to list all of the HBAs, including iSCSI devices,
configured on the system:
# vxddladm list hbas
192

Listing the ports configured on a Host Bus Adapter

You can obtain information about all the ports configured on an HBA. The display
includes the following information:
HBA-ID
The parent HBA.
State
Address
To list the ports configured on a Host Bus Adapter
Use the following command to obtain the ports configured on an HBA:

# vxddladm list ports
PORT-ID
HBA-ID
STATE
ADDRESS
-----------------------------------------------------c2_p0
c2
Online
50:0A:09:80:85:84:9D:84
c3_p0
c3
Online
10.216.130.10:3260
Listing the targets configured from a Host Bus Adapter or a

port
You can obtain information about all the targets configured from a Host Bus Adapter
or a port.
Table 9-3 shows the target information.
Table 9-3
Target information
Field
Description
Alias
The alias name, if available.
HBA-ID
Parent HBA or port.
State
Address
193

194
To list the targets
To list all of the targets, use the following command:

# vxddladm list targets

TARGET-ID ALIAS HBA-ID STATE ADDRESS
----------------------------------------------------------------c2_p0_t0
c2
Online 50:0A:09:80:85:84:9D:84
c3_p0_t1
c3
Online iqn.1992-08.com.netapp:sn.84190939
To list the targets configured from a Host Bus Adapter or port
You can filter based on a HBA or port, using the following command:
# vxddladm list targets [hba=hba_name|port=port_name]
For example, to obtain the targets configured from the specified HBA:
# vxddladm list targets hba=c2
TARGET-ID ALIAS HBA-ID
STATE
ADDRES
-------------------------------------------------------------c2_p0_t0
c2
Online
50:0A:09:80:85:84:9D:84
Listing the devices configured from a Host Bus Adapter and

target
You can obtain information about all the devices configured from a Host Bus Adapter.
Table 9-4 shows the device information.
Table 9-4
Device information
Field
Description
Device
The device name.
Target-ID
The parent target.
State
DDL status
Whether the device is claimed by DDL. If claimed, the output

also displays the ASL name.

To list the devices configured from a Host Bus Adapter
To obtain the devices configured, use the following command:

# vxddladm list devices
Device
Target-ID
State
DDL status (ASL)
------------------------------------------------------sda
fscsi0_p0_t0 Online
CLAIMED (libvxemc.so)
sdb
fscsi0_p0_t0 Online
SKIPPED (libvxemc.so)
sdc
fscsi0_p0_t0 Offline ERROR
sdd
fscsi0_p0_t0 Online
EXCLUDED
sde
fscsi0_p0_t0 Offline MASKED
To list the devices configured from a Host Bus Adapter and target
To obtain the devices configured from a particular HBA and target, use the
following command:
# vxddladm list devices target=target_name
Getting or setting the iSCSI operational parameters

DDL provides an interface to set and display certain parameters that affect the
performance of the iSCSI device path. However, the underlying OS framework must
support the ability to set these values. The vxddladm set command returns an
error if the OS support is not available.
Table 9-5
Parameters for iSCSI devices
Parameter
Default value
Minimum value
Maximum value
DataPDUInOrder
yes
no
yes
DataSequenceInOrder
yes
no
yes
DefaultTime2Retain
20
3600
DefaultTime2Wait
3600
ErrorRecoveryLevel
FirstBurstLength
65535
512
16777215
InitialR2T
yes
no
yes
ImmediateData
yes
no
yes
195

Table 9-5
Parameters for iSCSI devices (continued)
Parameter
Default value
Minimum value
Maximum value
MaxBurstLength
262144
512
16777215
MaxConnections
65535
MaxOutStandingR2T
65535
512
16777215
MaxRecvDataSegmentLength 8182
To get the iSCSI operational parameters on the initiator for a specific iSCSI target
Type the following commands:

# vxddladm getiscsi target=tgt-id {all | parameter}
You can use this command to obtain all the iSCSI operational parameters.
# vxddladm getiscsi target=c2_p2_t0

PARAMETER
CURRENT DEFAULT
MIN
MAX
-------------------------------------------------------DataPDUInOrder
yes
yes
no
yes
DataSequenceInOrder
yes
yes
no
yes
DefaultTime2Retain
20
20
0
3600
DefaultTime2Wait
2
2
0
3600
ErrorRecoveryLevel
0
0
0
2
FirstBurstLength
65535
65535
512 16777215
InitialR2T
yes
yes
no
yes
ImmediateData
yes
yes
no
yes
MaxBurstLength
262144 262144
512 16777215
MaxConnections
1
1
1
65535
MaxOutStandingR2T
1
1
1
65535
MaxRecvDataSegmentLength 8192
8182
512 16777215
To set the iSCSI operational parameters on the initiator for a specific iSCSI target

# vxddladm setiscsi target=tgt-id parameter=value
196

Listing all supported disk arrays

Use this procedure to obtain values for the vid and pid attributes that are used
with other forms of the vxddladm command.
To list all supported disk arrays

# vxddladm listsupport all
Displaying details about an Array Support Library

Dynamic Multi-Pathing (DMP) enables you to display details about the Array Support
Libraries (ASL).
The Array Support Libraries are in the directory /etc/vx/lib/discovery.d.
To display details about an Array Support Library

# vxddladm listsupport libname=library_name.so
This command displays the vendor ID (VID), product IDs (PIDs) for the arrays,
array types (for example, A/A or A/P), and array names. The following is sample
output.
# vxddladm listsupport libname=libvxfujitsu.so
ATTR_NAME
ATTR_VALUE
=================================================
LIBNAME
libvxfujitsu.so
VID
vendor
PID
GR710, GR720, GR730
GR740, GR820, GR840
ARRAY_TYPE
A/A, A/P
ARRAY_NAME
FJ_GR710, FJ_GR720, FJ_GR730
FJ_GR740, FJ_GR820, FJ_GR840
Excluding support for a disk array library

You can exclude support for disk arrays that depends on a particular disk array
library. You can also exclude support for disk arrays from a particular vendor.
197

To exclude support for a disk array library
Before excluding the PowerPath array support library (ASL), you must remove
the devices from PowerPath control.
Verify that the devices on the system are not managed by PowerPath. The
following command displays the devices that are not managed by PowerPath.
# powermt display unmanaged
If any devices on the system do not display, remove the devices from
PowerPath control with the following command:
# powermt unmanage dev=pp_device_name
To exclude support for a disk array library, specify the array library to the
following command.
# vxddladm excludearray libname=libname
You can also exclude support for disk arrays from a particular vendor, as shown
in this example:
# vxddladm excludearray vid=ACME pid=X1
Re-including support for an excluded disk array library

If you previously excluded support for all arrays that depend on a particular disk
array library, use this procedure to include the support for those arrays. This
procedure removes the library from the exclude list.
To re-include support for an excluded disk array library
If you have excluded support for all arrays that depend on a particular disk
array library, you can use the includearray keyword to remove the entry from
the exclude list.
# vxddladm includearray libname=libname
This command adds the array library to the database so that the library can
once again be used in device discovery. If vxconfigd is running, you can use
the vxdisk scandisks command to discover the arrays and add their details
to the database.
198

Listing excluded disk arrays

To list all disk arrays that are currently excluded from use by Veritas Volume
Manager (VxVM)

# vxddladm listexclude
Listing supported disks in the DISKS category

To list disks that are supported in the DISKS (JBOD) category

# vxddladm listjbod
Adding unsupported disk arrays to the DISKS category

Disk arrays should be added as JBOD devices if no Array Support Library (ASL)
is available for the array.
JBODs are assumed to be Active/Active (A/A) unless otherwise specified. If a
suitable ASL is not available, an A/A-A, A/P, or A/PF array must be claimed as an
Active/Passive (A/P) JBOD to prevent path delays and I/O failures. If a JBOD is
ALUA-compliant, it is added as an ALUA array.
See How DMP works on page 34.
Warning: This procedure ensures that Dynamic Multi-Pathing (DMP) is set up
correctly on an array that is not supported by Veritas Volume Manager (VxVM).
Otherwise, VxVM treats the independent paths to the disks as separate devices,
which can result in data corruption.
199

To add an unsupported disk array to the DISKS category
Use the following command to identify the vendor ID and product ID of the
disks in the array:
# /etc/vx/diag.d/vxscsiinq device_name
where device_name is the device name of one of the disks in the array. Note
the values of the vendor ID (VID) and product ID (PID) in the output from this
command. For Fujitsu disks, also note the number of characters in the serial
number that is displayed.
The following example output shows that the vendor ID is SEAGATE and the
product ID is ST318404LSUN18G.
Vendor id (VID)
Product id (PID)
Revision
Serial Number
:
:
:
:
SEAGATE
ST318404LSUN18G
8507
0025T0LA3H
Stop all applications, such as databases, from accessing VxVM volumes that
are configured on the array, and unmount all file systems and Storage
Checkpoints that are configured on the array.
If the array is of type A/A-A, A/P, or A/PF, configure it in autotrespass mode.
Enter the following command to add a new JBOD category:

# vxddladm addjbod vid=vendorid [pid=productid] \
[serialnum=opcode/pagecode/offset/length] \
[cabinetnum=opcode/pagecode/offset/length] policy={aa|ap}]
where vendorid and productid are the VID and PID values that you found from
the previous step. For example, vendorid might be FUJITSU, IBM, or SEAGATE.
For Fujitsu devices, you must also specify the number of characters in the
serial number as the length argument (for example, 10). If the array is of type
A/A-A, A/P, or A/PF, you must also specify the policy=ap attribute.
Continuing the previous example, the command to define an array of disks of
this type as a JBOD would be:
# vxddladm addjbod vid=SEAGATE pid=ST318404LSUN18G
Use the vxdctl enable command to bring the array under VxVM control.
# vxdctl enable
See Enabling discovery of new disk arrays on page 189.
200

To verify that the array is now supported, enter the following command:
# vxddladm listjbod
The following is sample output from this command for the example array:
VID
PID
SerialNum
CabinetNum
Policy
(Cmd/PageCode/off/len) (Cmd/PageCode/off/len)
==============================================================
SEAGATE ALL PIDs 18/-1/36/12
18/-1/10/11
Disk
SUN
SESS01
18/-1/36/12
18/-1/12/11
Disk
201

To verify that the array is recognized, use the vxdmpadm listenclosure

command as shown in the following sample output for the example array:
# vxdmpadm listenclosure
ENCLR_NAME ENCLR_TYPE ENCLR_SNO STATUS

ARRAY_TYPE LUN_COUNT FIRMWARE
=======================================================================
Disk
Disk
DISKS
CONNECTED Disk
2
-
The enclosure name and type for the array are both shown as being set to
Disk. You can use the vxdisk list command to display the disks in the array:
# vxdisk list
DEVICE
Disk_0
Disk_1
...
TYPE
auto:none
auto:none
DISK
-
GROUP
-
STATUS
online invalid
online invalid
To verify that the DMP paths are recognized, use the vxdmpadm getdmpnode
command as shown in the following sample output for the example array:
# vxdmpadm getdmpnode enclosure=Disk
NAME
STATE
ENCLR-TYPE PATHS ENBL DSBL ENCLR-NAME
=====================================================
Disk_0 ENABLED Disk
2
2
0
Disk
Disk_1 ENABLED Disk
2
2
0
Disk
...
The output in this example shows that there are two paths to the disks in the
array.
For more information, enter the command vxddladm help addjbod.
See the vxdmpadm(1M) manual page.
Removing disks from the DISKS category

Use the procedure in this section to remove disks from the DISKS category.
To remove disks from the DISKS category
Use the vxddladm command with the rmjbod keyword. The following example
illustrates the command for removing disks that have the vendor id of SEAGATE:
# vxddladm rmjbod vid=SEAGATE
202

Foreign devices
The Device Discovery Layer (DDL) may not be able to discover some devices that
are controlled by third-party drivers, such as those that provide multi-pathing or
RAM disk capabilities. For these devices it may be preferable to use the multi-pathing
capability that is provided by the third-party drivers for some arrays rather than
using Dynamic Multi-Pathing (DMP). Such foreign devices can be made available
as simple disks to Veritas Volume Manager (VxVM) by using the vxddladm
addforeign command. This also has the effect of bypassing DMP for handling I/O.
The following example shows how to add entries for block and character devices
in the specified directories:
# vxddladm addforeign blockdir=/dev/foo/dsk chardir=/dev/foo/rdsk
If a block or character device is not supported by a driver, it can be omitted from

the command as shown here:
# vxddladm addforeign blockdir=/dev/foo/dsk
By default, this command suppresses any entries for matching devices in the
OS-maintained device tree that are found by the autodiscovery mechanism. You
can override this behavior by using the -f and -n options as described on the
vxddladm(1M) manual page.
After adding entries for the foreign devices, use either the vxdisk scandisks or
the vxdctl enable command to discover the devices as simple disks. These disks
then behave in the same way as autoconfigured disks.
The foreign device feature was introduced in VxVM 4.0 to support non-standard
devices such as RAM disks, some solid state disks, and pseudo-devices such as
EMC PowerPath.
Foreign device support has the following limitations:
A foreign device is always considered as a disk with a single path. Unlike an

autodiscovered disk, it does not have a DMP node.
It is not supported for shared disk groups in a clustered environment. Only

standalone host systems are supported.
It is not supported for Persistent Group Reservation (PGR) operations.
It is not under the control of DMP, so enabling of a failed disk cannot be

automatic, and DMP administrative commands are not applicable.
Enclosure information is not available to VxVM. This can reduce the availability
of any disk groups that are created using such devices.
The I/O fencing and Cluster File System features are not supported for foreign
devices.
203

If a suitable ASL is available and installed for an array, these limitations are removed.
See About third-party driver coexistence on page 189.

Use this procedure to exclude a device from the view of Veritas Volume Manager
(VxVM). The options to prevent a device from being multi-pathed by the Dynamic
Multi-Pathing (DMP) driver (vxdmp) are deprecated.
204

To make devices invisible to VxVM
Run the vxdiskadm command, and select Prevent multipathing/Suppress

devices from VxVMs view from the main menu. You are prompted to confirm
whether you want to continue.
Select the operation you want to perform from the following options:
Option 1
Suppresses all paths through the specified controller from the view of
VxVM.
Option 2
Suppresses specified paths from the view of VxVM.
Option 3
Suppresses disks from the view of VxVM that match a specified Vendor
ID and Product ID combination.
The root disk cannot be suppressed.
The operation fails if the VID:PID of an external disk is the same VID:PID
as the root disk and the root disk is encapsulated under VxVM.
Option 4
Deprecated
Suppresses all but one path to a disk. Only one path is made visible to
VxVM.
This operation is deprecated, since it can lead to unsupported
configurations.
Option 5
Prevents multi-pathing for all disks on a specified controller by VxVM.
Deprecated

configurations.
Option 6
Prevents multi-pathing of a disk by VxVM. The disks that correspond

to a specified path are claimed in the OTHER_DISKS category and are
not multi-pathed.
Deprecated

configurations.
Option 7
Deprecated
Prevents multi-pathing for the disks that match a specified Vendor ID

and Product ID combination. The disks that correspond to a specified
Vendor ID and Product ID combination are claimed in the
OTHER_DISKS category and are not multi-pathed.
configurations.
Option 8
Lists the devices that are currently suppressed.
205


Use this procedure to make a device visible to Veritas Volume Manager (VxVM)
again. The options to allow multi-pathing by the Dynamic Multi-Pathing (DMP) driver
(vxdmp) are deprecated.
To make devices visible to VxVM
Run the vxdiskadm command, and select Allow multipathing/Unsuppress

devices from VxVMs view from the main menu. You are prompted to confirm
whether you want to continue.
Select the operation you want to perform from the following options:
Option 1
Unsuppresses all paths through the specified controller from the view
of VxVM.
Option 2
Unsuppresses specified paths from the view of VxVM.
Option 3
Unsuppresses disks from the view of VxVM that match a specified

Vendor ID and Product ID combination.
Option 4
Removes a pathgroup definition. (A pathgroup explicitly defines alternate

paths to the same disk.) Once a pathgroup has been removed, all paths
that were defined in that pathgroup become visible again.
Deprecated
This operation is deprecated.

Option 5
Deprecated
Allows multi-pathing of all disks that have paths through the specified
controller.
Option 6
Allows multi-pathing of a disk by VxVM.
Deprecated
Option 7
Allows multi-pathing of disks that match a specified Vendor ID and

Product ID combination.
Deprecated

Option 8
Lists the devices that are currently suppressed.
206

About enabling and disabling I/O for controllers and storage processors
About enabling and disabling I/O for controllers and

storage processors
Dynamic Multi-Pathing (DMP) lets you to turn off I/O through a Host Bus Adapter
(HBA) controller or the array port of a storage processor so that you can perform
administrative operations. This feature can be used when you perform maintainance
on HBA controllers on the host, or array ports that are attached to disk arrays
supported by Symantec Storage Foundation (SF). I/O operations to the HBA
controller or the array port can be turned back on after the maintenance task is
completed. You can accomplish these operations using the vxdmpadm command.
For Active/Active type disk arrays, when you disable the I/O through an HBA
controller or array port, the I/O continues on the remaining paths. For Active/Passive
type disk arrays, if disabling I/O through an HBA controller or array port resulted in
all primary paths being disabled, DMP will failover to secondary paths and I/O will
continue on them.
After the administrative operation is over, use the vxdmpadm command to re-enable
the paths through the HBA controllers or array ports.
See Disabling I/O for paths, controllers, array ports, or DMP nodes on page 239.
See Enabling I/O for paths, controllers, array ports, or DMP nodes on page 241.
Note: From release 5.0 of VxVM, these operations are supported for controllers
that are used to access disk arrays on which cluster-shareable disk groups are
configured.
You can also perform certain reconfiguration operations dynamically online.
About displaying DMP database information

You can use the vxdmpadm command to list Dynamic Multi-Pathing (DMP) database
information and perform other administrative tasks. This command allows you to
list all controllers that are connected to disks, and other related information that is
stored in the DMP database. You can use this information to locate system hardware,
and to help you decide which controllers need to be enabled or disabled.
The vxdmpadm command also provides useful information such as disk array serial
numbers, which DMP devices (disks) are connected to the disk array, and which
paths are connected to a particular controller, enclosure, or array port.
See Administering DMP using the vxdmpadm utility on page 210.
207


The vxdisk command is used to display the multi-pathing information for a particular
metadevice. The metadevice is a device representation of a physical disk having
multiple physical paths through the systems HBA controllers. In Dynamic
Multi-Pathing (DMP,) all the physical disks in the system are represented as
metadevices with one or more physical paths.
To display the multi-pathing information on a system
Use the vxdisk path command to display the relationships between the device
paths, disk access names, disk media names, and disk groups on a system
as shown here:
# vxdisk path
SUBPATH
sda
sdi
sdb
sdj
.
.
.
DANAME
sda
sdi
sdb
sdj
DMNAME
mydg01
mydg01
mydg02
mydg02
GROUP
mydg
mydg
mydg
mydg
STATE
ENABLED
ENABLED
ENABLED
ENABLED
This shows that two paths exist to each of the two disks, mydg01 and mydg02,
and also indicates that each disk is in the ENABLED state.
208

To view multi-pathing information for a particular metadevice
Use the following command:

# vxdisk list devicename
For example, to view multi-pathing information for the device sdl, use the
following command:
# vxdisk list sdl
The output from the vxdisk list command displays the multi-pathing
information, as shown in the following example:
Device:
sdl
devicetag: sdl
type:
sliced
hostid:
sys1
.
.
.
Multipathing information:
numpaths:
2
sdl
state=enabled
type=secondary
sdp
state=disabled
type=primary
The numpaths line shows that there are 2 paths to the device. The next two
lines in the "Multipathing information" section of the output show that one path
is active (state=enabled) and that the other path has failed (state=disabled).
The type field is shown for disks on Active/Passive type disk arrays such as
the EMC CLARiiON, Hitachi HDS 9200 and 9500, Sun StorEdge 6xxx, and
Sun StorEdge T3 array. This field indicates the primary and secondary paths
to the disk.
The type field is not displayed for disks on Active/Active type disk arrays such
as the EMC Symmetrix, Hitachi HDS 99xx and Sun StorEdge 99xx Series, and
IBM ESS Series. Such arrays have no concept of primary and secondary paths.
209

Alternately, you can use the following command to view multi-pathing

information:
# vxdmpadm getsubpaths dmpnodename=devicename
For example, to view multi-pathing information for emc_clariion0_893, use

the following command:
# vxdmpadm getsubpaths dmpnodename=emc_clariion0_893
Typical output from the vxdmpadm getsubpaths command is as follows:

NAME
STATE[A]
PATH-TYPE[M] CTLR-NAME ENCLR-TYPE
ENCLR-NAME
ATTRS
==============================================================================
sdbc
ENABLED(A) PRIMARY
c3
EMC_CLARiiON emc_clariion0
sdbm
ENABLED
SECONDARY
c3
sdbw
ENABLED(A) PRIMARY
c3
sdck
ENABLED(A) PRIMARY
c2
sdcu
ENABLED
SECONDARY
c2
sdde
ENABLED(A) PRIMARY
c2
-

The vxdmpadm utility is a command-line administrative interface to Dynamic
Multi-Pathing (DMP).
You can use the vxdmpadm utility to perform the following tasks:
Retrieve the name of the DMP device corresponding to a particular path.

See Retrieving information about a DMP node on page 212.
Display consolidated information about the DMP nodes.

See Displaying consolidated information about the DMP nodes on page 213.
Display the members of a LUN group.

See Displaying the members of a LUN group on page 214.
List all paths under a DMP device node, HBA controller, enclosure, or array
port.
See Displaying paths controlled by a DMP node, controller, enclosure, or array
port on page 214.
Display information about the HBA controllers on the host.

See Displaying information about controllers on page 217.
Display information about enclosures.

See Displaying information about enclosures on page 218.
210

Display information about array ports that are connected to the storage
processors of enclosures.
See Displaying information about array ports on page 219.
Display information about devices that are controlled by third-party multi-pathing

drivers.
See Displaying information about devices controlled by third-party drivers
on page 219.
Display extended devices attributes.

See Displaying extended device attributes on page 220.
Suppress or include devices from VxVM control.

See Suppressing or including devices from VxVM control on page 223.
Gather I/O statistics for a DMP node, enclosure, path, or controller.

See Gathering and displaying I/O statistics on page 224.
Configure the attributes of the paths to an enclosure.

See Setting the attributes of the paths to an enclosure on page 230.
Display the redundancy level of a device or enclosure.

See Displaying the redundancy level of a device or enclosure on page 231.
Specify the minimum number of active paths.

See Specifying the minimum number of active paths on page 232.
Display or set the I/O policy that is used for the paths to an enclosure.
Enable or disable I/O for a path, HBA controller or array port on the system.
See Disabling I/O for paths, controllers, array ports, or DMP nodes on page 239.
Rename an enclosure.
See Renaming an enclosure on page 242.
Configure how DMP responds to I/O request failures.

Configure the I/O throttling mechanism.

Control the operation of the DMP path restoration thread.

See Configuring DMP path restoration policies on page 247.
Configure array policy modules.

See Configuring Array Policy Modules on page 249.
Get or set the values of various tunables used by DMP.

See DMP tunable parameters on page 723.
211

Retrieving information about a DMP node

The following command displays the Dynamic Multi-Pathing (DMP) node that
controls a particular physical path:
# vxdmpadm getdmpnode nodename=pathname
The physical path is specified by argument to the nodename attribute, which must
be a valid path listed in the device directory.
The device directory is the /dev directory.
The command displays output similar to the following example output.
# vxdmpadm getdmpnode nodename=sdbc
NAME
STATE
ENCLR-TYPE
PATHS ENBL DSBL ENCLR-NAME
====================================================================
emc_clariion0_89 ENABLED EMC_CLARiiON 6
6
0
emc_clariion0
Use the -v option to display the LUN serial number and the array volume ID.
# vxdmpadm -v getdmpnode nodename=sdbc
NAME
STATE ENCLR-TYPE PATHS ENBL DSBL ENCLR-NAME SERIAL-NO ARRAY_VOL_ID
=====================================================================================
6
0
emc_clariion0 600601601 893
Use the enclosure attribute with getdmpnode to obtain a list of all DMP nodes for
the specified enclosure.
# vxdmpadm getdmpnode enclosure=enc0
NAME
STATE
ENCLR-TYPE PATHS ENBL DSBL ENCLR-NAME
==========================================================
sdm
ENABLED ACME
2
2
0
enc0
sdn
ENABLED ACME
2
2
0
enc0
sdo
ENABLED ACME
2
2
0
enc0
sdp
ENABLED ACME
2
2
0
enc0
Use the dmpnodename attribute with getdmpnode to display the DMP information for
a given DMP node.
# vxdmpadm getdmpnode dmpnodename=emc_clariion0_158
212

NAME
STATE
ENCLR-TYPE
==================================================================
1
0
emc_clariion0
Displaying consolidated information about the DMP nodes

The vxdmpadm list dmpnode command displays the detail information of a Dynamic
Multi-Pathing (DMP) node. The information includes the enclosure name, LUN
serial number, port id information, device attributes, and so on.
The following command displays the consolidated information for all of the DMP
nodes in the system:
# vxdmpadm list dmpnode all
Use the enclosure attribute with list dmpnode to obtain a list of all DMP nodes
for the specified enclosure.
# vxdmpadm list dmpnode enclosure=enclosurename
For example, the following command displays the consolidated information for all
of the DMP nodes in the enc0 enclosure.
# vxdmpadm list dmpnode enclosure=enc0
Use the dmpnodename attribute with list dmpnode to display the DMP information
for a given DMP node. The DMP node can be specified by name or by specifying
a path name. The detailed information for the specified DMP node includes path
information for each subpath of the listed DMP node.
The path state differentiates between a path that is disabled due to a failure and a
path that has been manually disabled for administrative purposes. A path that has
been manually disabled using the vxdmpadm disable command is listed as
disabled(m).
# vxdmpadm list dmpnode dmpnodename=dmpnodename
For example, the following command displays the consolidated information for the
DMP node emc_clariion0_158.
# vxdmpadm list dmpnode dmpnodename=emc_clariion0_158
dmpdev
state
enclosure
cab-sno
asl
=
=
=
=
=
emc_clariion0_158
enabled
emc_clariion0
CK200070400359
libvxCLARiiON.so
213

vid
pid
array-name
array-type
iopolicy
avid
lun-sno
udid
dev-attr
###path
path
path
path
path
path
path
=
=
=
=
=
=
=
=
=
=
=
=
=
=
=
=
DGC
DISK
EMC_CLARiiON
CLR-A/PF
MinimumQ
158
600601601A141B001D4A32F92B49DE11
DGC%5FDISK%5FCK200070400359%5F600601601A141B001D4A32F92B49DE11
lun
name state type transport ctlr hwpath aportID aportWWN attr
sdck enabled(a) primary FC c2 c2 A5 50:06:01:61:41:e0:3b:33 sdde enabled(a) primary FC c2 c2 A4 50:06:01:60:41:e0:3b:33 sdcu enabled secondary FC c2 c2 B4 50:06:01:68:41:e0:3b:33 sdbm enabled secondary FC c3 c3 B4 50:06:01:68:41:e0:3b:33 sdbw enabled(a) primary FC c3 c3 A4 50:06:01:60:41:e0:3b:33 sdbc enabled(a) primary FC c3 c3 A5 50:06:01:61:41:e0:3b:33 -
Displaying the members of a LUN group

The following command displays the Dynamic Multi-Pathing (DMP) nodes that are
in the same LUN group as a specified DMP node:
# vxdmpadm getlungroup dmpnodename=dmpnode
For example:
# vxdmpadm getlungroup dmpnodename=sdq
NAME
STATE
ENCLR-TYPE PATHS
ENBL
DSBL
ENCLR-NAME
===============================================================
sdo
ENABLED ACME
2
2
0
enc1
sdp
ENABLED ACME
2
2
0
enc1
sdq
ENABLED ACME
2
2
0
enc1
sdr
ENABLED ACME
2
2
0
enc1
Displaying paths controlled by a DMP node, controller, enclosure,

or array port
The vxdmpadm getsubpaths command lists all of the paths known to Dynamic
Multi-Pathing (DMP). The vxdmpadm getsubpaths command also provides options
to list the subpaths through a particular DMP node, controller, enclosure, or array
port. To list the paths through an array port, specify either a combination of enclosure
name and array port id, or array port worldwide name (WWN).
214

To list all subpaths known to DMP:

# vxdmpadm getsubpaths
NAME
STATE[A]
PATH-TYPE[M] DMPNODENAME
ENCLR-NAME
CTLR
ATTRS
=============================================================================
sdaf
ENABLED(A) PRIMARY
ams_wms0_130 ams_wms0
c2
sdc
ENABLED
SECONDARY
ams_wms0_130 ams_wms0
c3
sdb
ENABLED(A)
disk_24
disk
c0
sda
ENABLED(A)
disk_25
disk
c0
sdav
ENABLED(A) PRIMARY
emc_clariion0_1017 emc_clariion0 c3
sdbf
ENABLED
SECONDARY
-
The vxdmpadm getsubpaths command combined with the dmpnodename attribute

displays all the paths to a LUN that are controlled by the specified DMP node name
from the /dev/vx/rdmp directory:
# vxdmpadm getsubpaths dmpnodename=sdu
NAME
STATE[A] PATH-TYPE[M] CTLR-NAME ENCLR-TYPE ENCLR-NAME ATTRS
====================================================================
sdu
ENABLED(A) PRIMARY
c2
ACME
enc0
sdt
ENABLED
PRIMARY
c1
ACME
enc0
-
For A/A arrays, all enabled paths that are available for I/O are shown as ENABLED(A).
For A/P arrays in which the I/O policy is set to singleactive, only one path is
shown as ENABLED(A). The other paths are enabled but not available for I/O. If the
I/O policy is not set to singleactive, DMP can use a group of paths (all primary
or all secondary) for I/O, which are shown as ENABLED(A).
Paths that are in the DISABLED state are not available for I/O operations.
A path that was manually disabled by the system administrator displays as
DISABLED(M). A path that failed displays as DISABLED.
You can use getsubpaths to obtain information about all the paths that are
connected to a particular HBA controller:
# vxdmpadm getsubpaths ctlr=c2
NAME STATE[-]
PATH-TYPE[-] DMPNODENAME ENCLR-TYPE ENCLR-NAME ATTRS
===================================================================
sdk
ENABLED(A) PRIMARY
sdk
ACME
enc0
sdl
ENABLED(A) PRIMARY
sdl
ACME
enc0
-
215

sdm
sdn
DISABLED
ENABLED
SECONDARY
SECONDARY
sdm
sdn
ACME
ACME
enc0
enc0
You can also use getsubpaths to obtain information about all the paths that are
connected to a port on an array. The array port can be specified by the name of
the enclosure and the array port ID, or by the WWN identifier of the array port:
# vxdmpadm getsubpaths enclosure=enclosure portid=portid
# vxdmpadm getsubpaths pwwn=pwwn
For example, to list subpaths through an array port through the enclosure and the
array port ID:
# vxdmpadm getsubpaths enclosure=emc_clariion0 portid=A5
NAME
STATE[A]
PATH-TYPE[M] DMPNODENAME ENCLR-NAME
CTLR
ATTRS
================================================================================
sdav
ENABLED(A) PRIMARY
sdcd
ENABLED(A) PRIMARY
sdau
ENABLED(A) PRIMARY
sdcc
ENABLED(A) PRIMARY
-
For example, to list subpaths through an array port through the WWN:
# vxdmpadm getsubpaths pwwn=50:06:01:61:41:e0:3b:33
NAME
STATE[A]
PATH-TYPE[M] CTLR-NAME ENCLR-TYPE
ENCLR-NAME
ATTRS
================================================================================
sdav
ENABLED(A) PRIMARY
c3
sdcd
ENABLED(A) PRIMARY
c2
sdau
ENABLED(A) PRIMARY
c3
sdcc
ENABLED(A) PRIMARY
c2
# vxdmpadm getsubpaths pwwn=20:00:00:E0:8B:06:5F:19
You can use getsubpaths to obtain information about all the subpaths of an
enclosure.
# vxdmpadm getsubpaths enclosure=enclosure_name [ctlr=ctlrname]
To list all subpaths of an enclosure:

# vxdmpadm getsubpaths enclosure=emc_clariion0
NAME
STATE[A]
PATH-TYPE[M] DMPNODENAME ENCLR-NAME
CTLR
ATTRS
================================================================================
sdav
ENABLED(A) PRIMARY
sdbf
ENABLED
SECONDARY
-
216

sdau
sdbe
ENABLED(A) PRIMARY
ENABLED
SECONDARY
To list all subpaths of a controller on an enclosure:

# vxdmpadm getsubpaths enclosure=Disk ctlr=c1
By default, the output of the vxdmpadm getsubpaths command is sorted by

enclosure name, DMP node name, and within that, path name.
To sort the output based on the pathname, the DMP node name, the enclosure
name, or the host controller name, use the -s option.
To sort subpaths information, use the following command:
# vxdmpadm -s {path | dmpnode | enclosure | ctlr} getsubpaths \
[all | ctlr=ctlr_name | dmpnodename=dmp_device_name | \
enclosure=enclr_name [ctlr=ctlr_name | portid=array_port_ID] | \
pwwn=port_WWN | tpdnodename=tpd_node_name]
See Setting customized names for DMP nodes on page 265.
Displaying information about controllers

The following Dynamic Multi-Pathing (DMP) command lists attributes of all HBA
controllers on the system:
# vxdmpadm listctlr all
CTLR-NAME ENCLR-TYPE
STATE
ENCLR-NAME
PATH_COUNT
==============================================================
c1
OTHER
ENABLED other0
3
c2
X1
ENABLED jbod0
10
c3
ACME
ENABLED enc0
24
c4
ACME
ENABLED enc0
24
This output shows that the controller c1 is connected to disks that are not in any
recognized DMP category as the enclosure type is OTHER.
The other controllers are connected to disks that are in recognized DMP categories.
All the controllers are in the ENABLED state, which indicates that they are available
for I/O operations.
The state DISABLED is used to indicate that controllers are unavailable for I/O
operations. The unavailability can be due to a hardware failure or due to I/O
operations being disabled on that controller by using the vxdmpadm disable
command.
217

The following forms of the command lists controllers belonging to a specified

enclosure or enclosure type:
# vxdmpadm listctlr enclosure=enc0
or
# vxdmpadm listctlr type=ACME
CTLR-NAME
ENCLR-TYPE
STATE
ENCLR-NAME
PATH_COUNT
===============================================================
c2
ACME
ENABLED enc0
10
c3
ACME
ENABLED enc0
24
The vxdmpadm getctlr command displays HBA vendor details and the Controller
ID. For iSCSI devices, the Controller ID is the IQN or IEEE-format based name.
For FC devices, the Controller ID is the WWN. Because the WWN is obtained from
ESD, this field is blank if ESD is not running. ESD is a daemon process used to
notify DDL about occurrence of events. The WWN shown as Controller ID maps
to the WWN of the HBA port associated with the host controller.
# vxdmpadm getctlr c5
LNAME
PNAME VENDOR CTLR-ID
===================================================
c5
c5
qlogic
20:07:00:a0:b8:17:e1:37
Displaying information about enclosures

Dynamic Multi-Pathing (DMP) can display the attributes of the enclosures, including
the enclosure type, enclosure serial number, status, array type, number of LUNs,
and the firmware version, if available.
To display the attributes of a specified enclosure, use the following DMP command:
# vxdmpadm listenclosure emc0
ENCLR_NAME ENCLR_TYPE ENCLR_SNO
STATUS
==================================================================================
emc0
EMC
000292601383
CONNECTED A/A
30
5875
To display the attrtibutes for all enclosures in a system, use the following DMP
command:
# vxdmpadm listenclosure all
ENCLR_NAME
ENCLR_TYPE
ENCLR_SNO
STATUS
====================================================================================
218

Disk
emc0
hitachi_usp-vm0
emc_clariion0
Disk
EMC
Hitachi_USP-VM
EMC_CLARiiON
DISKS
000292601383
25847
CK20007040035
CONNECTED
CONNECTED
CONNECTED
CONNECTED
Disk
A/A
A/A
CLR-A/PF
6
1
1
2
5875
6008
0324
Displaying information about array ports

Use the Dynamic Multi-Pathing (DMP) commands in this section to display
information about array ports. The information displayed for an array port includes
the name of its enclosure, its ID, and its worldwide name (WWN) identifier.
To display the attributes of an array port that is accessible through a path, DMP
node or HBA controller, use one of the following commands:
# vxdmpadm getportids path=path_name
# vxdmpadm getportids dmpnodename=dmpnode_name
# vxdmpadm getportids ctlr=ctlr_name
The following form of the command displays information about all of the array ports
within the specified enclosure:
# vxdmpadm getportids enclosure=enclr_name
The following example shows information about the array port that is accessible
through DMP node sdg:
# vxdmpadm getportids dmpnodename=sdg
NAME
ENCLR-NAME ARRAY-PORT-ID pWWN
==============================================================
sdg
HDS9500V0
1A
20:00:00:E0:8B:06:5F:19
Displaying information about devices controlled by third-party drivers

The third-party driver (TPD) coexistence feature allows I/O that is controlled by
third-party multi-pathing drivers to bypass Dynamic Multi-Pathing (DMP) while
retaining the monitoring capabilities of DMP. The following commands allow you
to display the paths that DMP has discovered for a given TPD device, and the TPD
device that corresponds to a given TPD-controlled node discovered by DMP:
# vxdmpadm getsubpaths tpdnodename=TPD_node_name
# vxdmpadm gettpdnode nodename=TPD_path_name
See Changing device naming for enclosures controlled by third-party drivers

on page 267.
219

For example, consider the following disks in an EMC Symmetrix array controlled
by PowerPath, which are known to DMP:
# vxdisk list
DEVICE
emcpower10
emcpower11
emcpower12
emcpower13
emcpower14
emcpower15
emcpower16
emcpower17
emcpower18
emcpower19
TYPE
auto:sliced
auto:sliced
auto:sliced
auto:sliced
auto:sliced
auto:sliced
auto:sliced
auto:sliced
auto:sliced
auto:sliced
DISK
disk1
disk2
disk3
disk4
disk5
disk6
disk7
disk8
disk9
disk10
GROUP
ppdg
ppdg
ppdg
ppdg
ppdg
ppdg
ppdg
ppdg
ppdg
ppdg
STATUS
online
online
online
online
online
online
online
online
online
online
The following command displays the paths that DMP has discovered, and which
correspond to the PowerPath-controlled node, emcpower10:
# vxdmpadm getsubpaths tpdnodename=emcpower10
NAME
TPDNODENAME PATH-TYPE[-]DMP-NODENAME ENCLR-TYPE ENCLR-NAME
===================================================================
sdq
emcpower10s2 emcpower10
PP_EMC
pp_emc0
sdr
emcpower10s2 emcpower10
PP_EMC
pp_emc0
Conversely, the next command displays information about the PowerPath node
that corresponds to the path, sdq, discovered by DMP:
# vxdmpadm gettpdnode nodename=sdq
NAME
STATE
PATHS ENCLR-TYPE
ENCLR-NAME
===================================================================
emcpower10s2 ENABLED 2
PP_EMC
pp_emc0
Displaying extended device attributes

Device Discovery Layer (DDL) extended attributes are attributes or flags
corresponding to a Veritas Volume Manager (VxVM) or Dynamic Multi-Pathing
(DMP) LUN or disk and that are discovered by DDL. These attributes identify a LUN
to a specific hardware category.
Table 9-6 describes the list of categories.
220

Table 9-6
Categories for extended attributes
Category
Description
Hardware RAID types
Displays what kind of Storage RAID Group the

LUN belongs to
Thin Provisioning Discovery and

Reclamation
Displays the LUNs thin reclamation abilities
Device Media Type
Displays the type of media whether SSD (solid

state disk )
Storage-based Snapshot/Clone
Displays whether the LUN is a SNAPSHOT or a

CLONE of a PRIMARY LUN
Storage-based replication
Displays if the LUN is part of a replicated group

across a remote site
Transport
Displays what kind of HBA is used to connect to

this LUN (FC, SATA, iSCSI)
See Displaying detailed information about

reclamation commands on page 432.
Each LUN can have one or more of these extended attributes. DDL discovers the
extended attributes during device discovery from the Array Support Library (ASL).
If Veritas Operations Manager (VOM) is present, DDL can also obtain extended
attributes from the VOM Management Server for hosts that are configured as
managed hosts.
The vxdisk -p list command displays DDL extended attributes. For example,
the following command shows attributes of std, fc, and RAID_5 for this LUN:
# vxdisk -p list
DISK
:
DISKID
:
VID
:
UDID
:
REVISION
:
PID
:
PHYS_CTLR_NAME :
LUN_SNO_ORDER :
LUN_SERIAL_NO :
LIBNAME
:
HARDWARE_MIRROR:
DMP_DEVICE
:
DDL_THIN_DISK :
DDL_DEVICE_ATTR:
tagmastore-usp0_0e18
1253585985.692.rx2600h11
HITACHI
HITACHI%5FOPEN-V%5F02742%5F0E18
5001
OPEN-V
0/4/1/1.0x50060e8005274246
411
0E18
libvxhdsusp.sl
no
tagmastore-usp0_0e18
thick
std fc RAID_5
221

CAB_SERIAL_NO :
ATYPE
:
ARRAY_VOLUME_ID:
ARRAY_PORT_PWWN:
ANAME
:
TRANSPORT
:
02742
A/A
0E18
50:06:0e:80:05:27:42:46
TagmaStore-USP
FC
The vxdisk -x attribute -p list command displays the one-line listing for the
property list and the attributes. The following example shows two Hitachi LUNs that
support Thin Reclamation through the attribute hdprclm:
# vxdisk -x DDL_DEVICE_ATTR -p list
DEVICE
tagmastore-usp0_0a7a
tagmastore-usp0_065a
tagmastore-usp0_065b
DDL_DEVICE_ATTR
std fc RAID_5
hdprclm fc
hdprclm fc
User can specify multiple -x options in the same command to display multiple entries.
For example:
# vxdisk -x DDL_DEVICE_ATTR -x VID -p list
DEVICE
tagmastore-usp0_0a7b
tagmastore-usp0_0a78
tagmastore-usp0_065a
tagmastore-usp0_065b
tagmastore-usp0_065c
tagmastore-usp0_065d
DDL_DEVICE_ATTR
std fc RAID_5
std fc RAID_5
std fc RAID_5
std fc RAID_5
hdprclm fc
hdprclm fc
hdprclm fc
hdprclm fc
VID
HITACHI
HITACHI
HITACHI
HITACHI
HITACHI
HITACHI
HITACHI
HITACHI
Use the vxdisk -e list command to show the DLL_DEVICE_ATTR property in

the last column named ATTR.
# vxdisk -e list
DEVICE
tagmastore-usp0_0a7b
tagmastore-usp0_0655
TYPE
auto
auto
auto
auto
auto
auto
DISK
-
GROUP
-
STATUS
online
online
online
online
online
online
OS_NATIVE_NAME
c10t0d2
c10t0d3
c10t0d0
c13t2d7
c13t3d0
c13t3d1
ATTR
std fc RAID_5
std fc RAID_5
std fc RAID_5
hdprclm fc
hdprclm fc
hdprclm fc
222

For a list of ASLs that supports Extended Attributes, and descriptions of these
attributes, refer to the hardware compatibility list (HCL) at the following URL:
Suppressing or including devices from VxVM control

The vxdmpadm exclude command suppresses devices from Veritas Volume
Manager (VxVM) based on the criteria that you specify. When a device is
suppressed, Dynamic Multi-Pathing (DMP) does not claim the device so that the
device is not available for VxVM to use. You can add the devices back into VxVM
control with the vxdmpadm include command. The devices can be included or
excluded based on VID:PID combination, paths, controllers, or disks. You can use
the bang symbol (!) to exclude or include any paths or controllers except the one
specified.
The root disk cannot be suppressed. The operation fails if the VID:PID of an external
disk is the same VID:PID as the root disk and the root disk is encapsulated under
VxVM.
Note: The ! character is a special character in some shells. The following syntax
shows how to escape it in a bash shell.
# vxdmpadm exclude { all | product=VID:PID |
ctlr=[\!]ctlrname | dmpnodename=diskname [ path=[\!]pathname] }
# vxdmpadm include { all | product=VID:PID |
ctlr=[\!]ctlrname | dmpnodename=diskname [ path=[\!]pathname] }
where:
all
all devices
product=VID:PID
all devices with the specified VID:PID
ctlr=ctlrname
all devices through the given controller
dmpnodename=diskname
all paths under the DMP node
dmpnodename=diskname path=\!pathname all paths under the DMP node except the one
specified
223

Gathering and displaying I/O statistics

You can use the vxdmpadm iostat command to gather and display I/O statistics
for a specified DMP node, enclosure, path, port, or controller.
The statistics displayed are the CPU usage and amount of memory per CPU used
to accumulate statistics, the number of read and write operations, the number of
kilobytes read and written, and the average time in milliseconds per kilobyte that
is read or written.
To enable the gathering of statistics, enter this command:
# vxdmpadm iostat start [memory=size]
The memory attribute limits the maximum amount of memory that is used to record
I/O statistics for each CPU. The default limit is 32k (32 kilobytes) per CPU.
To reset the I/O counters to zero, use this command:
# vxdmpadm iostat reset
To display the accumulated statistics at regular intervals, use the following command:
# vxdmpadm iostat show {filter} [interval=seconds [count=N]]
The above command displays I/O statistics for the devices specified by the filter.
The filter is one of the following:
all
ctlr=ctlr-name
dmpnodename=dmp-node
enclosure=enclr-name [portid=array-portid ] [ctlr=ctlr-name]
pathname=path-name
pwwn=array-port-wwn[ctlr=ctlr-name]
Use the interval and count attributes to specify the interval in seconds between
displaying the I/O statistics, and the number of lines to be displayed. The actual
interval may be smaller than the value specified if insufficient memory is available
to record the statistics.
DMP also provides a groupby option to display cumulative I/O statistics, aggregated
by the specified criteria.
See Displaying cumulative I/O statistics on page 225.
To disable the gathering of statistics, enter this command:
# vxdmpadm iostat stop
224

Displaying cumulative I/O statistics

The vxdmpadm iostat command provides the ability to analyze the I/O load
distribution across various I/O channels or parts of I/O channels. Select the
appropriate filter to display the I/O statistics for the DMP node, controller, array
enclosure, path, port, or virtual machine. Then, use the groupby clause to display
cumulative statistics according to the criteria that you want to analyze. If the groupby
clause is not specified, then the statistics are displayed per path.
When you combine the filter and the groupby clause, you can analyze the I/O load
for the required use case scenario. For example:
To compare I/O load across HBAs, enclosures, or array ports, use the groupby
clause with the specified attribute.
To analyze I/O load across a given I/O channel (HBA to array port link), use
filter by HBA and PWWN or enclosure and array port.
To analyze I/O load distribution across links to an HBA, use filter by HBA and
groupby array port.
Use the following format of the iostat command to analyze the I/O loads:
# vxdmpadm [-u unit] iostat show [groupby=criteria] {filter}
[interval=seconds [count=N]]
The above command displays I/O statistics for the devices specified by the filter.
The filter is one of the following:
all
ctlr=ctlr-name
dmpnodename=dmp-node
enclosure=enclr-name [portid=array-portid ] [ctlr=ctlr-name]
pathname=path-name
pwwn=array-port-wwn[ctlr=ctlr-name]
You can aggregate the statistics by the following groupby criteria:
arrayport
ctlr
dmpnode
enclosure
By default, the read/write times are displayed in milliseconds up to 2 decimal places.

The throughput data is displayed in terms of BLOCKS, and the output is scaled,
225

meaning that the small values are displayed in small units and the larger values
are displayed in bigger units, keeping significant digits constant. You can specify
the units in which the statistics data is displayed. The -u option accepts the following
options:
h or H
Displays throughput in the highest possible unit.
Displays throughput in kilobytes.
Displays throughput in megabytes.
Displays throughput in gigabytes.
bytes| b
Displays throughput in exact number of bytes.
us
Displays average read/write time in microseconds.
To group by DMP node:

# vxdmpadm [-u unit] iostat show groupby=dmpnode \
[all | dmpnodename=dmpnodename | enclosure=enclr-name]
To group by controller:
# vxdmpadm [-u unit] iostat show groupby=ctlr [ all | ctlr=ctlr ]
For example:
# vxdmpadm iostat show groupby=ctlr ctlr=c5
CTLRNAME
c5
OPERATIONS
READS
WRITES
224
14
BLOCKS
READS WRITES
54
7
AVG TIME(ms)
READS
WRITES
4.20
11.10
To group by arrayport:
# vxdmpadm [-u unit] iostat show groupby=arrayport [ all \
| pwwn=array_pwwn | enclosure=enclr portid=array-port-id ]
For example:
# vxdmpadm -u m iostat show groupby=arrayport \
enclosure=HDS9500-ALUA0 portid=1A
PORTNAME
1A
OPERATIONS
READS
WRITES
743
1538
To group by enclosure:
BYTES
READS WRITES
11m
24m
AVG TIME(ms)
READS
WRITES
17.13
8.61
226

227
# vxdmpadm [-u unit] iostat show groupby=enclosure [ all \

| enclosure=enclr ]
For example:
# vxdmpadm -u h iostat show groupby=enclosure enclosure=EMC_CLARiiON0
OPERATIONS
ENCLOSURENAME
EMC_CLARiiON0
BLOCKS
AVG TIME(ms)
READS WRITES READS WRITES READS
743
1538
11392k 24176k 17.13
WRITES
8.61
You can also filter out entities for which all data entries are zero. This option is
especially useful in a cluster environment that contains many failover devices. You
can display only the statistics for the active paths.
To filter all zero entries from the output of the iostat show command:
# vxdmpadm [-u unit] -z iostat show [all|ctlr=ctlr_name |
dmpnodename=dmp_device_name | enclosure=enclr_name [portid=portid] |
pathname=path_name|pwwn=port_WWN][interval=seconds [count=N]]
For example:
# vxdmpadm -z iostat show dmpnodename=emc_clariion0_893
cpu usage = 9852us
per
OPERATIONS
PATHNAME READS WRITES
sdbc
32
0
sdbw
27
0
sdck
8
0
sdde
11
0
cpu memory = 266240b

BLOCKS
AVG TIME(ms)
READS
WRITES
READS
WRITES
258
0
0.04
0.00
216
0
0.03
0.00
57
0
0.04
0.00
81
0
0.15
0.00
To display average read/write times in microseconds.

# vxdmpadm -u us iostat show pathname=sdck
cpu usage = 9865us
per cpu memory = 266240b
OPERATIONS
BLOCKS
AVG TIME(us)
PATHNAME
READS
WRITES READS
WRITES
READS
WRITES
sdck
8
0
57
0
43.04
0.00
Displaying statistics for queued or erroneous I/Os

Use the vxdmpadm iostat show command with the -q option to display the I/Os
queued in Dynamic Multi-Pathing (DMP) for a specified DMP node, or for a specified
path or controller. For a DMP node, the -q option displays the I/Os on the specified

DMP node that were sent to underlying layers. If a path or controller is specified,
the -q option displays I/Os that were sent to the given path or controller and not
yet returned to DMP.
See the vxdmpadm(1m) manual page for more information about the vxdmpadm
iostat command.
To display queued I/O counts on a DMP node:
# vxdmpadm -q iostat show [filter] [interval=n [count=m]]
For example:
# vxdmpadm -q iostat show dmpnodename=emc_clariion0_352
cpu usage = 338us
DMPNODENAME
emc_clariion0_352

QUEUED I/Os
PENDING I/Os
READS
WRITES
0
0
0
To display the count of I/Os that returned with errors on a DMP node, path, or
controller:
# vxdmpadm -e iostat show [filter] [interval=n [count=m]]
For example, to show the I/O counts that returned errors on a path:
# vxdmpadm -e iostat show pathname=sdo
cpu usage = 637us
PATHNAME
sdo

ERROR I/Os
READS
WRITES
0
0
Examples of using the vxdmpadm iostat command

Dynamic Multi-Pathing (DMP) enables you to gather and display I/O statistics with
the vxdmpadm iostat command. This section provides an example session using
the vxdmpadm iostat command.
The first command enables the gathering of I/O statistics:
# vxdmpadm iostat start
The next command displays the current statistics including the accumulated total
numbers of read and write operations, and the kilobytes read and written, on all
paths.
228

229
# vxdmpadm -u k iostat show all

cpu usage = 7952us
OPERATIONS
BYTES
AVG TIME(ms)
PATHNAME READS
WRITES
READS
WRITES
READS
WRITES
sdf
sdk
sdg
sdl
sdh
sdm
sdi
sdn
sdj
sdo
sdj
sdp
87
0
87
0
87
0
87
0
87
0
87
0
0
0
0
0
0
0
0
0
0
0
0
0
44544k
0
44544k
0
44544k
0
44544k
0
44544k
0
44544k
0
0
0
0
0
0
0
0
0
0
0
0
0
0.00
0.00
0.00
0.00
0.00
0.00
0.00
0.00
0.00
0.00
0.00
0.00
0.00
0.00
0.00
0.00
0.00
0.00
0.00
0.00
0.00
0.00
0.00
0.00
The following command changes the amount of memory that vxdmpadm can use to
accumulate the statistics:
# vxdmpadm iostat start memory=4096
The displayed statistics can be filtered by path name, DMP node name, and
enclosure name (note that the per-CPU memory has changed following the previous
command):
# vxdmpadm -u k iostat show pathname=sdk
PATHNAME
sdk
cpu usage = 8132us

OPERATIONS
BYTES
AVG TIME(ms)
READS
WRITES
READS
WRITES
READS
WRITES
0
0
0
0
0.00
0.00
# vxdmpadm -u k iostat show dmpnodename=sdf
PATHNAME
sdf
cpu usage = 8501us

OPERATIONS
BYTES
AVG TIME(ms)
READS
WRITES
READS
WRITES
READS
WRITES
1088
0
557056k
0
0.00
0.00
# vxdmpadm -u k iostat show enclosure=Disk
PATHNAME
sdf
cpu usage = 8626us

OPERATIONS
BYTES
AVG TIME(ms)
READS
WRITES
READS
WRITES
READS
WRITES
1088
0
557056k
0
0.00
0.00

You can also specify the number of times to display the statistics and the time
interval. Here the incremental statistics for a path are displayed twice with a 2-second
interval:
# vxdmpadm iostat show pathname=sdk interval=2 count=2
PATHNAME
sdk
cpu usage = 9621us

OPERATIONS
BLOCKS
AVG TIME(ms)
READS
WRITES
READS
WRITES
READS
WRITES
0
0
0
0
0.00
0.00
sdk
0.00
0.00
Setting the attributes of the paths to an enclosure

You can use the vxdmpadm setattr command to set the attributes of the paths to
an enclosure or disk array.
The attributes set for the paths are persistent and are stored in the
/etc/vx/dmppolicy.info file.
You can set the following attributes:
active
Changes a standby (failover) path to an active path. The following

example specifies an active path for an array:
# vxdmpadm setattr path sde pathtype=active
nomanual
Restores the original primary or secondary attributes of a path. This

example restores the path to a JBOD disk:
# vxdmpadm setattr path sdm pathtype=nomanual
nopreferred
Restores the normal priority of a path. The following example restores

the default priority to a path:
# vxdmpadm setattr path sdk \
pathtype=nopreferred
230

preferred
[priority=N]
Specifies a path as preferred, and optionally assigns a priority number

to it. If specified, the priority number must be an integer that is greater
than or equal to one. Higher priority numbers indicate that a path is
able to carry a greater I/O load.
This example first sets the I/O policy to priority for an Active/Active
disk array, and then specifies a preferred path with an assigned priority
of 2:
# vxdmpadm setattr enclosure enc0 \
iopolicy=priority
# vxdmpadm setattr path sdk pathtype=preferred \
priority=2
primary
Defines a path as being the primary path for a JBOD disk array. The
following example specifies a primary path for a JBOD disk array:
# vxdmpadm setattr path sdm pathtype=primary
secondary
Defines a path as being the secondary path for a JBOD disk array. The
following example specifies a secondary path for a JBOD disk array:
# vxdmpadm setattr path sdn pathtype=secondary
standby
Marks a standby (failover) path that it is not used for normal I/O
scheduling. This path is used if there are no active paths available for
I/O. The next example specifies a standby path for an A/P-C disk array:
# vxdmpadm setattr path sde pathtype=standby
Displaying the redundancy level of a device or enclosure

Use the vxdmpadm getdmpnode command to list the devices with less than the
required redundancy level.
To list the devices on a specified enclosure with fewer than a given number of
enabled paths, use the following command:
# vxdmpadm getdmpnode enclosure=encl_name redundancy=value
For example, to list the devices with fewer than 3 enabled paths, use the following
command:
# vxdmpadm getdmpnode enclosure=EMC_CLARiiON0 redundancy=3
231

232
NAME
STATE
ENCLR-TYPE
=====================================================================
2
1
emc_clariion0
2
0
emc_clariion0
2
1
emc_clariion0
2
0
emc_clariion0
To display the minimum redundancy level for a particular device, use the vxdmpadm
getattr command, as follows:
# vxdmpadm getattr enclosure|arrayname|arraytype \
component-name redundancy
For example, to show the minimum redundancy level for the enclosure
HDS9500-ALUA0:
# vxdmpadm getattr enclosure HDS9500-ALUA0 redundancy
ENCLR_NAME DEFAULT CURRENT
=============================================
HDS9500-ALUA0
0
4
Specifying the minimum number of active paths

You can set the minimum redundancy level for a device or an enclosure. The
minimum redundancy level is the minimum number of paths that should be active
for the device or the enclosure. If the number of paths falls below the minimum
redundancy level for the enclosure, a message is sent to the system console and
also logged to the Dynamic Multi-Pathing (DMP) log file. Also, notification is sent
to vxnotify clients.
The value set for minimum redundancy level is stored in the dmppolicy.info file,
and is persistent. If no minimum redundancy level is set, the default value is 0.
You can use the vxdmpadm setattr command to set the minimum redundancy
level.

To specify the minimum number of active paths
Use the vxdmpadm setattr command with the redundancy attribute as follows:
# vxdmpadm setattr enclosure|arrayname|arraytype component-name
redundancy=value
where value is the number of active paths.

For example, to set the minimum redundancy level for the enclosure
HDS9500-ALUA0:
# vxdmpadm setattr enclosure HDS9500-ALUA0 redundancy=2
Displaying the I/O policy

To display the current and default settings of the I/O policy for an enclosure, array,
or array type, use the vxdmpadm getattr command.
The following example displays the default and current setting of iopolicy for
JBOD disks:
# vxdmpadm getattr enclosure Disk iopolicy
ENCLR_NAME
DEFAULT
CURRENT
--------------------------------------Disk
MinimumQ
Balanced
The next example displays the setting of partitionsize for the enclosure enc0,
on which the balanced I/O policy with a partition size of 2MB has been set:
# vxdmpadm getattr enclosure enc0 partitionsize
ENCLR_NAME
DEFAULT
CURRENT
--------------------------------------enc0
512
4096
Specifying the I/O policy

You can use the vxdmpadm setattr command to change the Dynamic Multi-Pathing
(DMP) I/O policy for distributing I/O load across multiple paths to a disk array or
enclosure. You can set policies for an enclosure (for example, HDS01), for all
enclosures of a particular type (such as HDS), or for all enclosures of a particular
array type (such as A/A for Active/Active, or A/P for Active/Passive).
233

Warning: I/O policies are recorded in the file /etc/vx/dmppolicy.info, and are
persistent across reboots of the system.
Do not edit this file yourself.
Table 9-7 describes the I/O policies that may be set.
Table 9-7
DMP I/O policies
Policy
Description
adaptive
This policy attempts to maximize overall I/O throughput from/to the disks by dynamically
scheduling I/O on the paths. It is suggested for use where I/O loads can vary over time.
For example, I/O from/to a database may exhibit both long transfers (table scans) and
short transfers (random look ups). The policy is also useful for a SAN environment where
different paths may have different number of hops. No further configuration is possible
as this policy is automatically managed by DMP.
In this example, the adaptive I/O policy is set for the enclosure enc1:
iopolicy=adaptive
adaptiveminq
Similar to the adaptive policy, except that I/O is scheduled according to the length of
the I/O queue on each path. The path with the shortest queue is assigned the highest
priority.
234

Table 9-7
Policy
DMP I/O policies (continued)
Description
balanced
This policy is designed to optimize the use of caching in disk drives and RAID controllers.
[partitionsize=size] The size of the cache typically ranges from 120KB to 500KB or more, depending on the
characteristics of the particular hardware. During normal operation, the disks (or LUNs)
are logically divided into a number of regions (or partitions), and I/O from/to a given region
is sent on only one of the active paths. Should that path fail, the workload is automatically
redistributed across the remaining paths.
You can use the partitionsize attribute to specify the size for the partition. The partition
size in blocks is adjustable in powers of 2 from 2 up to 231. A value that is not a power
of 2 is silently rounded down to the nearest acceptable value.
Specifying a partition size of 0 is equivalent to specifying the default partition size.
The default value for the partition size is 512 blocks (256k). Specifying a partition size
of 0 is equivalent to the default partition size of 512 blocks (256k).
The default value can be changed by adjusting the value of the
dmp_pathswitch_blks_shift tunable parameter.
Note: The benefit of this policy is lost if the value is set larger than the cache size.
For example, the suggested partition size for an Hitachi HDS 9960 A/A array is from
32,768 to 131,072 blocks (16MB to 64MB) for an I/O activity pattern that consists mostly
of sequential reads or writes.
The next example sets the balanced I/O policy with a partition size of 4096 blocks (2MB)
on the enclosure enc0:
iopolicy=balanced partitionsize=4096
minimumq
This policy sends I/O on paths that have the minimum number of outstanding I/O requests
in the queue for a LUN. No further configuration is possible as DMP automatically
determines the path with the shortest queue.
The following example sets the I/O policy to minimumq for a JBOD:
# vxdmpadm setattr enclosure Disk \
iopolicy=minimumq
This is the default I/O policy for all arrays.
235

Table 9-7
DMP I/O policies (continued)
Policy
Description
priority
This policy is useful when the paths in a SAN have unequal performance, and you want
to enforce load balancing manually. You can assign priorities to each path based on your
knowledge of the configuration and performance characteristics of the available paths,
and of other aspects of your system.
See Setting the attributes of the paths to an enclosure on page 230.
In this example, the I/O policy is set to priority for all SENA arrays:
# vxdmpadm setattr arrayname SENA \
iopolicy=priority
round-robin
This policy shares I/O equally between the paths in a round-robin sequence. For example,
if there are three paths, the first I/O request would use one path, the second would use
a different path, the third would be sent down the remaining path, the fourth would go
down the first path, and so on. No further configuration is possible as this policy is
automatically managed by DMP.
The next example sets the I/O policy to round-robin for all Active/Active arrays:
# vxdmpadm setattr arraytype A/A \
iopolicy=round-robin
singleactive
This policy routes I/O down the single active path. This policy can be configured for A/P
arrays with one active path per controller, where the other paths are used in case of
failover. If configured for A/A arrays, there is no load balancing across the paths, and
the alternate paths are only used to provide high availability (HA). If the current active
path fails, I/O is switched to an alternate active path. No further configuration is possible
as the single active path is selected by DMP.
The following example sets the I/O policy to singleactive for JBOD disks:
# vxdmpadm setattr arrayname Disk \
iopolicy=singleactive
Scheduling I/O on the paths of an Asymmetric Active/Active

or an ALUA array
You can specify the use_all_paths attribute in conjunction with the adaptive,
balanced, minimumq, priority, and round-robin I/O policies to specify whether
I/O requests are to be scheduled on the secondary paths in addition to the primary
paths of an Asymmetric Active/Active (A/A-A) array or an ALUA array. Depending
on the characteristics of the array, the consequent improved load balancing can
236

increase the total I/O throughput. However, this feature should only be enabled if
recommended by the array vendor. It has no effect for array types other than A/A-A
or ALUA.
For example, the following command sets the balanced I/O policy with a partition
size of 4096 blocks (2MB) on the enclosure enc0, and allows scheduling of I/O
requests on the secondary paths:
# vxdmpadm setattr enclosure enc0 iopolicy=balanced \
partitionsize=4096 use_all_paths=yes
The default setting for this attribute is use_all_paths=no.

You can display the current setting for use_all_paths for an enclosure, arrayname,
or arraytype. To do this, specify the use_all_paths option to the vxdmpadm
gettattr command.
# vxdmpadm getattr enclosure HDS9500-ALUA0 use_all_paths
ENCLR_NAME
ATTR_NAME
DEFAULT CURRENT
===========================================
HDS9500-ALUA0 use_all_paths no
yes
The use_all_paths attribute only applies to A/A-A arrays and ALUA arrays. For
other arrays, the above command displays the message:
Attribute is not applicable for this array.
Example of applying load balancing in a SAN

This example describes how to use Dynamic Multi-Pathing (DMP) to configure load
balancing in a SAN environment where there are multiple primary paths to an
Active/Passive device through several SAN switches.
As shown in this sample output from the vxdisk list command, the device sdm
has eight primary paths:
# vxdisk list sdq
Device: sdq
.
.
.
numpaths: 8
sdj state=enabled type=primary
sdk state=enabled type=primary
sdl state=enabled type=primary
237

sdm
sdn
sdo
sdp
sdq
state=enabled
state=enabled
state=enabled
state=enabled
state=enabled
type=primary
type=primary
type=primary
type=primary
type=primary
In addition, the device is in the enclosure ENC0, belongs to the disk group mydg, and
contains a simple concatenated volume myvol1.
The first step is to enable the gathering of DMP statistics:
# vxdmpadm iostat start
Next, use the dd command to apply an input workload from the volume:
# dd if=/dev/vx/rdsk/mydg/myvol1 of=/dev/null &
By running the vxdmpadm iostat command to display the DMP statistics for the
device, it can be seen that all I/O is being directed to one path, sdq:
# vxdmpadm iostat show dmpnodename=sdq interval=5 count=2
.
.
.
cpu usage = 11294us per cpu memory = 32768b
OPERATIONS
KBYTES
PATHNAME
READS
WRITES
READS
WRITES
sdj
0
0
0
0
sdk
sdl
sdm
sdn
sdo
sdp
sdq
0
0
0
0
0
0
10986
0
0
0
0
0
0
0
0
0
0
0
0
0
5493
0
0
0
0
0
0
0
AVG TIME(ms)
READS
WRITES
0.00
0.00
0.00
0.00
0.00
0.00
0.00
0.00
0.41
0.00
0.00
0.00
0.00
0.00
0.00
0.00
The vxdmpadm command is used to display the I/O policy for the enclosure that
contains the device:
# vxdmpadm getattr enclosure ENC0 iopolicy
ENCLR_NAME
DEFAULT
CURRENT
============================================
ENC0
MinimumQ
Single-Active
238

This shows that the policy for the enclosure is set to singleactive, which explains
why all the I/O is taking place on one path.
To balance the I/O load across the multiple primary paths, the policy is set to
round-robin as shown here:
# vxdmpadm setattr enclosure ENC0 iopolicy=round-robin
# vxdmpadm getattr enclosure ENC0 iopolicy
ENCLR_NAME
DEFAULT
CURRENT
============================================
ENC0
MinimumQ
Round-Robin
The DMP statistics are now reset:

# vxdmpadm iostat reset
With the workload still running, the effect of changing the I/O policy to balance the
load across the primary paths can now be seen.
# vxdmpadm iostat show dmpnodename=sdq interval=5 count=2
.
.
.
cpu usage = 14403us per cpu memory = 32768b
OPERATIONS
KBYTES
PATHNAME
READS
WRITES
READS
WRITES
sdj
2041
0
1021
0
sdk
1894
0
947
0
sdl
2008
0
1004
0
sdm
2054
0
1027
0
sdn
2171
0
1086
0
sdo
2095
0
1048
0
sdp
2073
0
1036
0
sdq
2042
0
1021
0
AVG TIME(ms)
READS
WRITES
0.39
0.00
0.39
0.00
0.39
0.00
0.40
0.00
0.39
0.00
0.39
0.00
0.39
0.00
0.39
0.00
The enclosure can be returned to the single active I/O policy by entering the following
command:
# vxdmpadm setattr enclosure ENC0 iopolicy=singleactive
Disabling I/O for paths, controllers, array ports, or DMP nodes

Disabling I/O through a path, HBA controller, array port, or Dynamic Multi-Pathing
(DMP) node prevents DMP from issuing I/O requests through the specified path,
or the paths that are connected to the specified controller, array port, or DMP node.
239

If the specified paths have pending I/Os, the vxdmpadm disable command waits
until the I/Os are completed before disabling the paths.
Note: From release 5.0 of Veritas Volume Manager (VxVM), this operation is
supported for controllers that are used to access disk arrays on which
cluster-shareable disk groups are configured.
DMP does not support the operation to disable I/O for the controllers that use
Third-Party Drivers (TPD) for multi-pathing.
To disable I/O for one or more paths, use the following command:
# vxdmpadm [-c|-f] disable path=path_name1[,path_name2,path_nameN]
To disable I/O for the paths connected to one or more HBA controllers, use the
following command:
# vxdmpadm [-c|-f] disable ctlr=ctlr_name1[,ctlr_name2,ctlr_nameN]
To disable I/O for the paths connected to an array port, use one of the following
commands:
# vxdmpadm [-c|-f] disable enclosure=enclr_name portid=array_port_ID
# vxdmpadm [-c|-f] disable pwwn=array_port_WWN
where the array port is specified either by the enclosure name and the array port
ID, or by the array ports worldwide name (WWN) identifier.
The following examples show how to disable I/O on an array port:
# vxdmpadm disable enclosure=HDS9500V0 portid=1A
# vxdmpadm disable pwwn=20:00:00:E0:8B:06:5F:19
To disable I/O for a particular path, specify both the controller and the portID, which
represent the two ends of the fabric:
# vxdmpadm [-c|-f] disable ctlr=ctlr_name enclosure=enclr_name \
portid=array_port_ID
To disable I/O for a particular DMP node, specify the DMP node name.
# vxdmpadm [-c|-f] disable dmpnodename=dmpnode
You can use the -c option to check if there is only a single active path to the disk.
The last path disable operation fails with -f option irrespective whether the device
is in use or not.
240

The disable operation fails if it is issued to a controller that is connected to the

root disk through a single path, and there are no root disk mirrors configured on
alternate paths. If such mirrors exist, the command succeeds.
Enabling I/O for paths, controllers, array ports, or DMP nodes

Enabling a controller allows a previously disabled path, HBA controller, array port,
or Dynamic Multi-Pathing (DMP) node to accept I/O again. This operation succeeds
only if the path, controller, array port, or DMP node is accessible to the host, and
I/O can be performed on it. When connecting Active/Passive disk arrays, the enable
operation results in failback of I/O to the primary path. The enable operation can
also be used to allow I/O to the controllers on a system board that was previously
detached.
Note: This operation is supported for controllers that are used to access disk arrays
on which cluster-shareable disk groups are configured.
DMP does not support the operation to enable I/O for the controllers that use
Third-Party Drivers (TPD) for multi-pathing.
To enable I/O for one or more paths, use the following command:
# vxdmpadm enable path=path_name1[,path_name2,path_nameN]
To enable I/O for the paths connected to one or more HBA controllers, use the
following command:
# vxdmpadm enable ctlr=ctlr_name1[,ctlr_name2,ctlr_nameN]
To enable I/O for the paths connected to an array port, use one of the following
commands:
# vxdmpadm enable enclosure=enclr_name portid=array_port_ID
# vxdmpadm enable pwwn=array_port_WWN
where the array port is specified either by the enclosure name and the array port
ID, or by the array ports worldwide name (WWN) identifier.
The following are examples of using the command to enable I/O on an array port:
# vxdmpadm enable enclosure=HDS9500V0 portid=1A
# vxdmpadm enable pwwn=20:00:00:E0:8B:06:5F:19
To enable I/O for a particular path, specify both the controller and the portID, which
represent the two ends of the fabric:
241

# vxdmpadm enable ctlr=ctlr_name enclosure=enclr_name \

portid=array_port_ID
To enable I/O for a particular DMP node, specify the DMP node name.
# vxdmpadm enable dmpnodename=dmpnode
Renaming an enclosure
The vxdmpadm setattr command can be used to assign a meaningful name to an
existing enclosure, for example:
# vxdmpadm setattr enclosure emc0 name=GRP1
This example changes the name of an enclosure from emc0 to GRP1.

Note: The maximum length of the enclosure name prefix is 23 characters.
The following command shows the changed name:
# vxdmpadm listenclosure all
ENCLR_NAME
ENCLR_TYPE
ENCLR_SNO
STATUS
====================================================================================
Disk
Disk
DISKS
CONNECTED Disk
6
GRP1
EMC
000292601383 CONNECTED A/A
1
5875
hitachi_usp-vm0 Hitachi_USP-VM 25847
CONNECTED A/A
1
6008
emc_clariion0
EMC_CLARiiON
CK20007040035 CONNECTED CLR-A/PF
2
0324
Configuring the response to I/O failures

You can configure how Dynamic Multi-Pathing (DMP) responds to failed I/O requests
on the paths to a specified enclosure, disk array name, or type of array. By default,
DMP is configured to retry a failed I/O request up to five minutes on various active
paths.
To display the current settings for handling I/O request failures that are applied to
the paths to an enclosure, array name, or array type, use the vxdmpadm getattr
command.
See Displaying recovery option values on page 246.
To set a limit for the number of times that DMP attempts to retry sending an I/O
request on a path, use the following command:
242

# vxdmpadm setattr \
{enclosure enc-name|arrayname name|arraytype type} \
recoveryoption=fixedretry retrycount=n
The value of the argument to retrycount specifies the number of retries to be

attempted before DMP reschedules the I/O request on another available path, or
fails the request altogether.
As an alternative to specifying a fixed number of retries, you can specify the amount
of time DMP allows for handling an I/O request. If the I/O request does not succeed
within that time, DMP fails the I/O request. To specify an iotimeout value, use the
following command:
recoveryoption=timebound iotimeout=seconds
The default value of iotimeout is 300 seconds. For some applications such as
Oracle, it may be desirable to set iotimeout to a larger value. The iotimeout value
for DMP should be greater than the I/O service time of the underlying operating
system layers.
Note: The fixedretry and timebound settings are mutually exclusive.
The following example configures time-bound recovery for the enclosure enc0, and
sets the value of iotimeout to 360 seconds:
# vxdmpadm setattr enclosure enc0 recoveryoption=timebound \
iotimeout=360
The next example sets a fixed-retry limit of 10 for the paths to all Active/Active
arrays:
# vxdmpadm setattr arraytype A/A recoveryoption=fixedretry \
retrycount=10
Specifying recoveryoption=default resets DMP to the default settings

corresponding to recoveryoption=fixedretry retrycount=5, for example:
# vxdmpadm setattr arraytype A/A recoveryoption=default
The above command also has the effect of configuring I/O throttling with the default
settings.
243

Note: The response to I/O failure settings is persistent across reboots of the system.
Configuring the I/O throttling mechanism

By default, Dynamic Multi-Pathing (DMP) is configured with I/O throttling turned off
for all paths. To display the current settings for I/O throttling that are applied to the
paths to an enclosure, array name, or array type, use the vxdmpadm getattr
command.
See Displaying recovery option values on page 246.
If enabled, I/O throttling imposes a small overhead on CPU and memory usage
because of the activity of the statistics-gathering daemon. If I/O throttling is disabled,
the daemon no longer collects statistics, and remains inactive until I/O throttling is
re-enabled.
To turn off I/O throttling, use the following form of the vxdmpadm setattr command:
recoveryoption=nothrottle
The following example shows how to disable I/O throttling for the paths to the
enclosure enc0:
# vxdmpadm setattr enclosure enc0 recoveryoption=nothrottle
The vxdmpadm setattr command can be used to enable I/O throttling on the paths
to a specified enclosure, disk array name, or type of array:
{enclosure enc-name|arrayname name|arraytype type}\
recoveryoption=throttle [iotimeout=seconds]
If the iotimeout attribute is specified, its argument specifies the time in seconds
that DMP waits for an outstanding I/O request to succeed before invoking I/O
throttling on the path. The default value of iotimeout is 10 seconds. Setting
iotimeout to a larger value potentially causes more I/O requests to become queued
up in the SCSI driver before I/O throttling is invoked.
The following example sets the value of iotimeout to 60 seconds for the enclosure
enc0:
# vxdmpadm setattr enclosure enc0 recoveryoption=throttle \
iotimeout=60
244

245
Specify recoveryoption=default to reset I/O throttling to the default settings, as

follows:
# vxdmpadm setattr arraytype A/A recoveryoption=default
The above command configures the default behavior, corresponding to

recoveryoption=nothrottle. The above command also configures the default
behavior for the response to I/O failures.
Note: The I/O throttling settings are persistent across reboots of the system.
Configuring Low Impact Path Probing (LIPP)

The Low Impact Path Probing (LIPP) feature can be turned on or off using the
vxdmpadm settune command:
# vxdmpadm settune dmp_low_impact_probe=[on|off]
Path probing will be optimized by probing a subset of paths connected to the same
HBA and array port. The size of the subset of paths can be controlled by the
dmp_probe_threshold tunable. The default value is set to 5.
# vxdmpadm settune dmp_probe_threshold=N
Configuring Subpaths Failover Groups (SFG)

The Subpaths Failover Groups (SFG) feature can be turned on or off using the
tunable dmp_sfg_threshold. The default value of the tunable is 1, which represents
that the feature is on.
To turn off the feature, set the tunable dmp_sfg_threshold value to 0:
# vxdmpadm settune dmp_sfg_threshold=0
To turn on the feature, set the dmp_sfg_threshold value to the required number
of path failures that triggers SFG.
# vxdmpadm settune dmp_sfg_threshold=N
To see the Subpaths Failover Groups ID, use the following command:
# vxdmpadm getportids {ctlr=ctlr_name | dmpnodename=dmp_device_name \
| enclosure=enclr_name | path=path_name}

Displaying recovery option values

To display the current settings for handling I/O request failures that are applied to
the paths to an enclosure, array name, or array type, use the following Dynamic
Multi-Pathing (DMP) command:
# vxdmpadm getattr \
recoveryoption
The following example shows the vxdmpadm getattr command being used to
display the recoveryoption option values that are set on an enclosure.
# vxdmpadm getattr enclosure HDS9500-ALUA0 recoveryoption
ENCLR-NAME
RECOVERY-OPTION DEFAULT[VAL]
CURRENT[VAL]
===============================================================
HDS9500-ALUA0 Throttle
Nothrottle[0] Timebound[60]
HDS9500-ALUA0 Error-Retry
Fixed-Retry[5] Timebound[20]
The command output shows the default and current policy options and their values.
Table 9-8 summarizes the possible recovery option settings for retrying I/O after
an error.
Table 9-8
Recovery options for retrying I/O after an error
Recovery option
Possible settings
Description
recoveryoption=fixedretry
Fixed-Retry (retrycount)
DMP retries a failed I/O

request for the specified
number of times if I/O fails.
recoveryoption=timebound
Timebound (iotimeout)
DMP retries a failed I/O

request for the specified time
in seconds if I/O fails.
Table 9-9 summarizes the possible recovery option settings for throttling I/O.
Table 9-9
Recovery options for I/O throttling
Recovery option
Possible settings
Description
None
I/O throttling is not used.
recoveryoption=throttle
Timebound (iotimeout)
DMP throttles the path if an

I/O request does not return
within the specified time in
seconds.
246

Configuring DMP path restoration policies

Dynamic Multi-Pathing (DMP) maintains a kernel task that re-examines the condition
of paths at a specified interval. The type of analysis that is performed on the paths
depends on the checking policy that is configured.
Note: The DMP path restoration task does not change the disabled state of the path
through a controller that you have disabled using vxdmpadm disable.
When configuring DMP path restoration policies, you must stop the path restoration
thread, and then restart it with new attributes.
See Stopping the DMP path restoration thread on page 248.
Use the vxdmpadm settune dmp_restore_policy command to configure one of
the following restore policies. The policy remains in effect until the restore thread
is stopped or the values are changed using the vxdmpadm settune command.
check_all
The path restoration thread analyzes all paths in the system and revives the
paths that are back online, as well as disabling the paths that are inaccessible.
The command to configure this policy is:
# vxdmpadm settune dmp_restore_policy=check_all
check_alternate
The path restoration thread checks that at least one alternate path is healthy.
It generates a notification if this condition is not met. This policy avoids inquiry
commands on all healthy paths, and is less costly than check_all in cases
where a large number of paths are available. This policy is the same as
check_all if there are only two paths per DMP node. The command to configure
this policy is:
# vxdmpadm settune dmp_restore_policy=check_alternate
check_disabled
This is the default path restoration policy. The path restoration thread checks
the condition of paths that were previously disabled due to hardware failures,
and revives them if they are back online. The command to configure this policy
is:
# vxdmpadm settune dmp_restore_policy=check_disabled
check_periodic
247

The path restoration thread performs check_all once in a given number of

cycles, and check_disabled in the remainder of the cycles. This policy may
lead to periodic slowing down (due to check_all) if a large number of paths are
available. The command to configure this policy is:
# vxdmpadm settune dmp_restore_policy=check_periodic
The default number of cycles between running the check_all policy is 10.
The dmp_restore_interval tunable parameter specifies how often the path
restoration thread examines the paths. For example, the following command sets
the polling interval to 400 seconds:
# vxdmpadm settune dmp_restore_interval=400
The settings are immediately applied and are persistent across reboots. Use the
vxdmpadm gettune command to view the current settings.
If the vxdmpadm start restore command is given without specifying a policy or
interval, the path restoration thread is started with the persistent policy and interval
settings previously set by the administrator with the vxdmpadm settune command.
If the administrator has not set a policy or interval, the system defaults are used.
The system default restore policy is check_disabled. The system default interval
is 300 seconds.
Warning: Decreasing the interval below the system default can adversely affect
system performance.
Stopping the DMP path restoration thread

Use the following command to stop the Dynamic Multi-Pathing (DMP) path
restoration thread:
# vxdmpadm stop restore
Warning: Automatic path failback stops if the path restoration thread is stopped.
Displaying the status of the DMP path restoration thread

Use the vxdmpadm gettune command to display the tunable parameter values that
show the status of the Dynamic Multi-Pathing (DMP) path restoration thread. These
tunables include:
248

dmp_restore_state the status of the automatic path restoration kernel thread.

dmp_restore_interval the polling interval for the DMP path restoration thread.
dmp_restore_policy the policy that DMP uses to check the condition of paths.
To display the status of the DMP path restoration thread
Use the following commands:

# vxdmpadm gettune dmp_restore_state
# vxdmpadm gettune dmp_restore_interval
# vxdmpadm gettune dmp_restore_policy
Configuring Array Policy Modules

Dynamic Multi-Pathing (DMP) provides Array Policy Modules (APMs) for use with
an array. An APM is a dynamically loadable kernel module (or plug-in) that defines
array-specific procedures and commands to:
Select an I/O path when multiple paths to a disk within the array are available.
Select the path failover mechanism.
Select the alternate path in the case of a path failure.
Put a path change into effect.
Respond to SCSI reservation or release requests.
DMP supplies default procedures for these functions when an array is registered.
An APM may modify some or all of the existing procedures that DMP provides, or
that another version of the APM provides.
You can use the following command to display all the APMs that are configured for
a system:
# vxdmpadm listapm all
The output from this command includes the file name of each module, the supported
array type, the APM name, the APM version, and whether the module is currently
loaded and in use.
To see detailed information for an individual module, specify the module name as
the argument to the command:
# vxdmpadm listapm module_name
249

To add and configure an APM, use the following command:

# vxdmpadm -a cfgapm module_name [attr1=value1 \
[attr2=value2 ...]]
The optional configuration attributes and their values are specific to the APM for
an array. Consult the documentation from the array vendor for details.
Note: By default, DMP uses the most recent APM that is available. Specify the -u
option instead of the -a option if you want to force DMP to use an earlier version
of the APM. The current version of an APM is replaced only if it is not in use.
Specify the -r option to remove an APM that is not currently loaded:
# vxdmpadm -r cfgapm module_name
250
Chapter
10
Dynamic Reconfiguration of
devices
About online Dynamic Reconfiguration
Reconfiguring a LUN online that is under DMP control
Replacing a host bus adapter online
Upgrading the array controller firmware online
About online Dynamic Reconfiguration

System administrators and storage administrators may need to modify the set of
LUNs provisioned to a server. You can change the LUN configuration dynamically,
without performing a reconfiguration reboot on the host.
You can perform the following kinds of online dynamic reconfigurations:
Reconfiguring a LUN online that is under Dynamic Multi-Pathing (DMP) control

See Reconfiguring a LUN online that is under DMP control on page 252.
Replacing a host bus adapter (HBA) online

See Replacing a host bus adapter online on page 259.
Updating the array controller firmware, also known as a nondisruptive upgrade

See Upgrading the array controller firmware online on page 260.


System administrators and storage administrators may need to modify the set of
LUNs provisioned to a server. You can change the LUN configuration dynamically,
without performing a reconfiguration reboot on the host.
The operations are as follows:
Dynamic LUN removal from an existing target ID

See Removing LUNs dynamically from an existing target ID on page 252.
Dynamic new LUN addition to a new target ID

See Adding new LUNs dynamically to a new target ID on page 254.
Replacing a LUN on an existing target ID

See Replacing LUNs dynamically from an existing target ID on page 255.
Dynamic LUN expansion

See Dynamic LUN expansion on page 256.
Changing the LUN characteristics

See Changing the characteristics of a LUN from the array side on page 258.
Removing LUNs dynamically from an existing target ID

Dynamic Multi-Pathing (DMP) provides a Dynamic Reconfiguration tool to simplify
the removal of LUNs from an existing target ID. Each LUN is unmapped from the
host. DMP issues an operating system device scan and cleans up the operating
system device tree.
Warning: Do not run any device discovery operations outside of the Dynamic
Reconfiguration tool until the device operation is completed.
To remove LUNs dynamically from an existing target ID
Remove the device from use by any volume manager.

If the device is in use by Veritas Volume Manager (VxVM), perform the following
steps:
If the device is part of a disk group, move the disk out of the disk group.
# vxdg -g dgname rmdisk daname
See Removing a disk from a disk group on page 626.
Remove the disk from the vxdisk list.

In a cluster, perform this step from all of the nodes.
252

# vxdisk rm da-name
For example:
# vxdisk rm eva4k6k0_0
For LUNs using Linux LVM over DMP devices, remove the device from the
LVM volume group.
# vgreduce vgname devicepath
Start the vxdiskadm utility:

# vxdiskadm
Select the Dynamic Reconfiguration operations option from the vxdiskadm

menu.
Select the Remove LUNs option.
Type list or press Return to display a list of LUNs that are available for removal.
A LUN is available for removal if it is not in a disk group and the state is online,
nolabel, online invalid, or online thinrclm.
The following shows an example output:
Select disk devices to remove: [<pattern-list>,all,list]: list
LUN(s) available for removal:
eva4k6k0_0
eva4k6k0_1
eva4k6k0_2
eva4k6k0_3
eva4k6k0_4
emc0_017e
Enter the name of a LUN, a comma-separated list of LUNs, or a regular

expression to specify the LUNs to remove.
For example, enter emc0_017e.
At the prompt, confirm the LUN selection.

DMP removes the LUN from VxVM usage.
253

At the following prompt, remove the LUN from the array.

Enclosure=emc0 AVID=017E
Device=emc0_017e Serial=830017E000
---------------------------------------------------------PATH=sda ctlr=c15 port=7e-a [50:01:43:80:12:08:3c:26]
PATH=sdc ctlr=c17 port=7e-a [50:01:43:80:12:08:3a:76]
---------------------------------------------------------Please remove LUNs with Above details from array and
press 'y' to continue removal (default:y):
Return to the Dynamic Reconfiguration tool and select y to continue the removal
process.
DMP completes the removal of the device from VxVM usage. Output similar
to the following displays:
Luns Removed
------------------------emc0_017e
DMP updates the operating system device tree and the VxVM device tree.
10 Select exit to exit the Dynamic Reconfiguration tool.
Adding new LUNs dynamically to a new target ID

the addition of new LUNs to an existing target ID. One or more new LUNs are
mapped to the host by way of multiple HBA ports. An operating system device scan
is issued for the LUNs to be recognized and added to DMP control.
To add new LUNs dynamically to a new target ID

# vxdiskadm

menu.
254

Select the Add LUNs option.

The tool issues a device discovery.
When the prompt displays, add the LUNs from the array.
Select y to continue to add the LUNs to DMP.

The operation issues a device scan. The newly-discovered devices are now
visible.
Luns Added
--------------------------------------------------------------Enclosure=emc0 AVID=017E
Device=emc0_017e Serial=830017E000
PATH=c15t0d6 ctlr=c15 port=7e-a [50:01:43:80:12:08:3c:26]
PATH=c17t0d6 ctlr=c17 port=7e-a [50:01:43:80:12:08:3a:76]
Select exit to exit the Dynamic Reconfiguration tool.
Replacing LUNs dynamically from an existing target ID

the replacement of new LUNs from an existing target ID. Each LUN is unmapped
from the host. DMP issues an operating system device scan and cleans up the
operating system device tree.
To replace LUNs dynamically from an existing target ID

steps:

# vxdisk rm da-name
255

For example:
LVM volume group

# vxdiskadm

menu.
Select the Replace LUNs option.

The output displays a list of LUNs that are available for replacement. A LUN
is available for replacement if it is not in a disk group.and the state is online,
nolabel, online invalid, or online thinrclm.
Select one or more LUNs to replace.
At the prompt, confirm the LUN selection.
Remove the LUN from the array.
Return to the Dynamic Reconfiguration tool and select y to continue the removal.
After the removal completes successfully, the Dynamic Reconfiguration tool
prompts you to add a LUN.
When the prompt displays, add the LUNs from the array.
10 Select y to continue to add the LUNs to DMP.

The operation issues a device scan. The newly-discovered devices are now
visible.
DMP updates the operating system device tree.
Dynamic LUN expansion

Many modern disk arrays allow existing LUNs to be resized. Veritas Volume Manager
(VxVM) supports dynamic LUN expansion, by providing a facility to update disk
headers and other VxVM structures to match a new LUN size. The device must
have a SCSI interface that is presented by a smart switch, smart array, or RAID
controller.
256

Resizing should only be performed on LUNs that preserve data. Consult the array
documentation to verify that data preservation is supported and has been qualified.
The operation also requires that only storage at the end of the LUN is affected.
Data at the beginning of the LUN must not be altered. No attempt is made to verify
the validity of pre-existing data on the LUN. The operation should be performed on
the host where the disk group is imported (or on the master node for a cluster-shared
disk group).
VxVM does not support resizing of LUNs that are not part of a disk group. It is not
possible to resize LUNs that are in the boot disk group (aliased as bootdg), in a
deported disk group, or that are offline, uninitialized, being reinitialized, or in an
error state.
VxVM does not support resizing of a disk with the VxVM cdsdisk layout to a size
greater than 1 TB if the disk group version is less than 160. VxVM added support
for cdsdisk disks greater than 1 TB starting in disk group version 160.
When a disk is resized from the array side, you must also resize the disk from the
VxVM side to make VxVM aware of the new size.
Use the following form of the vxdisk command to make VxVM aware of the new
size of a LUN that has been resized:
# vxdisk [-f] [-g diskgroup] resize {accessname|medianame} \
[length=value]
If a disk media name rather than a disk access name is specified, a disk group
name is required. Specify a disk group with the -g option or configure a default disk
group. If the default disk group is not configured, the above command generates
an error message.
Following a resize operation to increase the length that is defined for a device,
additional disk space on the device is available for allocation. You can optionally
specify the new size by using the length attribute.
Any volumes on the device should only be grown after the LUN itself has first been
grown.
Warning: Do not perform this operation when replacing a physical disk with a disk
of a different size as data is not preserved.
Before shrinking a LUN, first shrink any volumes on the LUN or move those volumes
off of the LUN. Then, resize the device using vxdisk resize. Finally, resize the
LUN itself using the storage array's management utilities. By default, the resize
fails if any subdisks would be disabled as a result of their being removed in whole
or in part during a shrink operation.
257

If the device that is being resized has the only valid configuration copy for a disk
group, the -f option may be specified to forcibly resize the device. Note the following
exception. For disks with the VxVM cdsdisk layout, disks larger than 1 TB in size
have a different internal layout than disks smaller than 1 TB. Therefore, resizing a
cdsdisk disk from less than 1 TB to greater than 1 TB requires special care if the
disk group only has one disk. In this case, you must add a second disk (of any size)
to the disk group prior to performing the vxdisk resize command on the original
disk. You can remove the second disk from the disk group after the resize operation
has completed.
Caution: Resizing a device that contains the only valid configuration copy for a disk
group can result in data loss if a system crash occurs during the resize.
Resizing a virtual disk device is a non-transactional operation outside the control
of VxVM. This means that the resize command may have to be re-issued following
a system crash. In addition, a system crash may leave the private region on the
device in an unusable state. If this occurs, the disk must be reinitialized, reattached
to the disk group, and its data resynchronized or recovered from a backup.
Changing the characteristics of a LUN from the array side

Some arrays provide a way to change the properties of LUNs. For example, the
EMC Symmetrix array allows write-protected (read-only), and read-write enabled
LUNs. Before changing the properties of a LUN, you must remove the device from
Veritas Volume Manager (VxVM) control.
To change the properties of a LUN

steps:

# vxdisk rm da-name
For example:
258

LVM volume group
Change the device characteristics.
Use Symantec Storage Foundation (SF) to perform a device scan.

In a cluster, perform this command on all the nodes.
# vxdisk scandisks
Add the device back to the disk group.

# vxdg -g dgname adddisk daname

the removal of host bus adapters from an existing system.
To replace a host bus adapter online

# vxdiskadm

menu.
Select the Replace HBAs option.

The output displays a list of HBAs that are available to DMP.
Select one or more HBAs to replace.
At the prompt, confirm the HBA selection.
Replace the host bus adapter.
Return to the Dynamic Reconfiguration tool and select y to continue the

replacement process.
DMP updates the operating system device tree.
259


Storage array subsystems need code upgrades as fixes, patches, or feature
upgrades. You can perform these upgrades online when the file system is mounted
and I/Os are being served to the storage.
Legacy storage subsystems contain two controllers for redundancy. An online
upgrade is done one controller at a time. Dynamic Multi-Pathing fails over all I/O
to the second controller while the first controller is undergoing an Online Controller
Upgrade. After the first controller has completely staged the code, it reboots, resets,
and comes online with the new version of the code. The second controller goes
through the same process, and I/O fails over to the first controller.
Note: Throughout this process, application I/O is not affected.
Array vendors have different names for this process. For example, EMC calls it a
nondisruptive upgrade (NDU) for CLARiiON arrays.
A/A type arrays require no special handling during this online upgrade process. For
A/P, A/PF, and ALUA type arrays, DMP performs array-specific handling through
vendor-specific array policy modules (APMs) during an online controller code
upgrade.
When a controller resets and reboots during a code upgrade, DMP detects this
state through the SCSI status. DMP immediately fails over all I/O to the next
controller.
If the array does not fully support NDU, all paths to the controllers may be
unavailable for I/O for a short period of time. Before beginning the upgrade, set the
dmp_lun_retry_timeout tunable to a period greater than the time that you expect
the controllers to be unavailable for I/O. DMP does not fail the I/Os until the end of
the dmp_lun_retry_timeout period, or until the I/O succeeds, whichever happens
first. Therefore, you can perform the firmware upgrade without interrupting the
application I/Os.
For example, if you expect the paths to be unavailable for I/O for 300 seconds, use
# vxdmpadm settune dmp_lun_retry_timeout=300
DMP does not fail the I/Os for 300 seconds, or until the I/O succeeds.
To verify which arrays support Online Controller Upgrade or NDU, see the hardware
compatibility list (HCL) at the following URL:
260
Chapter
11
Managing devices
Displaying disk information
Changing the disk device naming scheme
About disk installation and formatting
Adding and removing disks
Renaming a disk

Before you use a disk, you need to know if it has been initialized and placed under
Veritas Volume Manager (VxVM) control. You also need to know if the disk is part
of a disk group, because you cannot create volumes on a disk that is not part of a
disk group. The vxdisk list command displays device names for all recognized
disks, the disk names, the disk group names associated with each disk, and the
status of each disk.
Managing devices
To display information on all disks that are known to VxVM

# vxdisk list
VxVM displays output similar to the following:

DEVICE
sdb
sdc
sdd
sde
TYPE
auto:sliced
auto:sliced
auto:sliced
auto:sliced
DISK
mydg04
mydg03
-
GROUP
mydg
mydg
-
STATUS
online
online
online invalid
online thinrclm
The phrase online invalid in the STATUS line indicates that a disk has not
yet been added to VxVM control. These disks may or may not have been
initialized by VxVM previously. Disks that are listed as online are already
under VxVM control.
To display information about an individual disk

# vxdisk [-v] list diskname
The -v option causes the command to additionally list all tags and tag values
that are defined for the disk. By default, tags are not displayed.
Displaying disk information with vxdiskadm

Veritas Volume Manager (VxVM) enables you to see disk information using the
vxdiskadm program. Disk information shows you which disks are initialized, to which
disk groups they belong, and the disk status. The list option displays device names
for all recognized disks, the disk names, the disk group names associated with
each disk, and the status of each disk.
To display disk information
Start the vxdiskadm program, and select list (List disk information)
from the main menu.
At the following prompt, enter the name of the device you want to see, or enter
all for a list of all devices:
List disk information
Menu: VolumeManager/Disk/ListDisk
VxVM INFO V-5-2-475 Use this menu operation to display a list of
262
Managing devices
disks. You can also choose to list detailed information about

the disk at a specific disk device address.
Enter disk device or "all" [<address>,all,q,?] (default: all)
If you enter all, VxVM displays the device name, disk name, group, and
status of all the devices.
If you enter the name of a device, VxVM displays complete disk information
(including the device name, the type of disk, and information about the
public and private areas of the disk) of that device.
Once you have examined this information, press Return to return to the main
menu.

You can either use enclosure-based naming for disks or the operating systems
naming scheme. DMP commands display device names according to the current
naming scheme.
The default naming scheme is enclosure-based naming (EBN).
When you use Dynamic Multi-Pathing (DMP) with native volumes, the disk naming
scheme must be EBN, the use_avid attribute must be on, and the persistence
attribute must be set to yes.
263
Managing devices
To change the disk-naming scheme
Select Change the disk naming scheme from the vxdiskadm main menu to
change the disk-naming scheme that you want SF to use. When prompted,
enter y to change the naming scheme.
OR
Change the naming scheme from the command line. Use the following
command to select enclosure-based naming:
# vxddladm set namingscheme=ebn [persistence={yes|no}] \
[use_avid={yes|no}] [lowercase={yes|no}]
Use the following command to select operating system-based naming:

# vxddladm set namingscheme=osn [persistence={yes|no}] \
[lowercase=yes|no]
The optional persistence argument allows you to select whether the names
of disk devices that are displayed by SF remain unchanged after disk hardware
has been reconfigured and the system rebooted. By default, enclosure-based
naming is persistent. Operating system-based naming is not persistent by
default.
To change only the naming persistence without changing the naming scheme,
run the vxddladm set namingscheme command for the current naming scheme,
and specify the persistence attribute.
By default, the names of the enclosure are converted to lowercase, regardless
of the case of the name specified by the ASL. The enclosure-based device
names are therefore in lowercase. Set the lowercase=no option to suppress
the conversion to lowercase.
For enclosure-based naming, the use_avid option specifies whether the Array
Volume ID is used for the index number in the device name. By default,
use_avid=yes, indicating the devices are named as enclosure_avid. If use_avid
is set to no, DMP devices are named as enclosure_index. The index number
is assigned after the devices are sorted by LUN serial number.
The change is immediate whichever method you use.
See Regenerating persistent device names on page 266.
Displaying the disk-naming scheme

In Dynamic Multi-Pathing (DMP), disk naming can be operating system-based
naming or enclosure-based naming.
264
Managing devices
The following command displays whether the SF disk-naming scheme is currently

set. It also displays the attributes for the disk naming scheme, such as whether
persistence is enabled.
To display the current disk-naming scheme and its mode of operations, use the
following command:
# vxddladm get namingscheme
NAMING_SCHEME
PERSISTENCE LOWERCASE USE_AVID
===============================================
Enclosure Based Yes
Yes
Yes
Setting customized names for DMP nodes

The Dynamic Multi-Pathing (DMP) node name is the meta device name that
represents the multiple paths to a disk. The Device Discovery Layer (DDL) generates
the DMP node name from the device name according to the Symantec Storage
Foundation (SF) naming scheme.
You can specify a customized name for a DMP node. User-specified names are
persistent even if names persistence is turned off.
You cannot assign a customized name that is already in use by a device. However,
if you assign names that follow the same naming conventions as the names that
the DDL generates, a name collision can potentially occur when a device is added.
If the user-defined name for a DMP device is the same as the DDL-generated name
for another DMP device, the vxdisk list command output displays one of the
devices as 'error'.
To specify a custom name for a DMP node

# vxdmpadm setattr dmpnode dmpnodename name=name
You can also assign names from an input file. This enables you to customize the
DMP nodes on the system with meaningful names.
To specify a custom name for an enclosure

# vxdmpadm setattr enclosure name=enc_name
265
Managing devices
To assign DMP nodes from a file
To obtain a file populated with the names of the devices in your configuration,
# vxddladm -l assign names
> filename
The sample file shows the format required and serves as a template to specify
your customized names.
You can also use the script vxgetdmpnames to get a sample file populated from
the devices in your configuration.
Modify the file as required. Be sure to maintain the correct format in the file.
To assign the names, specify the name and path of the file to the following
command:
# vxddladm assign names file=pathname
To clear custom names
To clear the names, and use the default operating system-based naming or
enclosure-based naming, use the following command:
# vxddladm -c assign names
Regenerating persistent device names

The persistent device naming feature makes the names of disk devices persistent
across system reboots. The Device Discovery Layer (DDL) assigns device names
according to the persistent device name database.
If operating system-based naming is selected, each disk name is usually set to the
name of one of the paths to the disk. After hardware reconfiguration and a
subsequent reboot, the operating system may generate different names for the
paths to the disks. Therefore, the persistent device names may no longer correspond
to the actual paths. This does not prevent the disks from being used, but the
association between the disk name and one of its paths is lost.
Similarly, if enclosure-based naming is selected, the device name depends on the
name of the enclosure and an index number. If a hardware configuration changes
the order of the LUNs exposed by the array, the persistent device name may not
reflect the current index.
266
Managing devices
267
To regenerate persistent device names
To regenerate the persistent names repository, use the following command:

# vxddladm [-c] assign names
The -c option clears all user-specified names and replaces them with
autogenerated names.
If the -c option is not specified, existing user-specified names are maintained,
but operating system-based and enclosure-based names are regenerated.
The disk names now correspond to the new path names.
Changing device naming for enclosures controlled by third-party

drivers
By default, enclosures controlled by third-party drivers (TPD) use pseudo device
names based on the TPD-assigned node names. If you change the device naming
to native, the devices are named in the same format as other Symantec Storage
Foundation (SF) devices. The devices use either operating system names (OSN)
or enclosure-based names (EBN), depending on which naming scheme is set.
See Displaying the disk-naming scheme on page 264.
To change device naming for TPD-controlled enclosures
For disk enclosures that are controlled by third-party drivers (TPD) whose
coexistence is supported by an appropriate Array Support Library (ASL), the
default behavior is to assign device names that are based on the TPD-assigned
node names. You can use the vxdmpadm command to switch between these
names and the device names that are known to the operating system:
# vxdmpadm setattr enclosure enclosure_name tpdmode=native|pseudo
The argument to the tpdmode attribute selects names that are based on those
used by the operating system (native), or TPD-assigned node names (pseudo).
The use of this command to change between TPD and operating system-based
naming is illustrated in the following example for the enclosure named EMC0.
In this example, the device-naming scheme is set to OSN.
# vxdisk list
DEVICE
emcpower10
emcpower11
emcpower12
TYPE
auto:sliced
auto:sliced
auto:sliced
DISK
disk1
disk2
disk3
GROUP
mydg
mydg
mydg
STATUS
online
online
online
Managing devices
emcpower13
emcpower14
emcpower15
emcpower16
emcpower17
emcpower18
emcpower19
auto:sliced
auto:sliced
auto:sliced
auto:sliced
auto:sliced
auto:sliced
auto:sliced
disk4
disk5
disk6
disk7
disk8
disk9
disk10
mydg
mydg
mydg
mydg
mydg
mydg
mydg
online
online
online
online
online
online
online
# vxdmpadm setattr enclosure EMC0 tpdmode=native

# vxdisk list
DEVICE
sdj
sdk
sdl
sdm
sdn
sdo
sdp
sdq
sdr
sds
TYPE
auto:sliced
auto:sliced
auto:sliced
auto:sliced
auto:sliced
auto:sliced
auto:sliced
auto:sliced
auto:sliced
auto:sliced
DISK
disk1
disk2
disk3
disk4
disk5
disk6
disk7
disk8
disk9
disk10
GROUP
mydg
mydg
mydg
mydg
mydg
mydg
mydg
mydg
mydg
mydg
STATUS
online
online
online
online
online
online
online
online
online
online
If tpdmode is set to native, the path with the smallest device number is
displayed.
About the Array Volume Identifier (AVID) attribute

DMP assigns enclosure-based names to DMP meta-devices using an array-specific
attribute called the Array Volume ID (AVID). The AVID is a unique identifier for the
LUN that is provided by the array. The Array Support Library (ASL) corresponding
to the array provides the AVID property. Within an array enclosure, DMP uses the
Array Volume Identifier (AVID) as an index in the DMP metanode name. The DMP
metanode name is in the format enclosureID_AVID.
The SF utilities such as vxdmpadm getdmpnode display the DMP metanode name,
which includes the AVID property. Use the AVID to correlate the DMP metanode
name to the LUN displayed in the array management interface (GUI or CLI) .
If the ASL does not provide the array volume ID property, then DMP generates an
index number. DMP sorts the devices seen from an array by the LUN serial number
and then assigns the index number. In this case, the DMP metanode name is in
the format enclosureID_index.
268
Managing devices
269
Enclosure based naming with the Array Volume Identifier (AVID)

attribute
By default, Dynamic Multi-Pathing (DMP) assigns enclosure-based names to DMP
meta-devices using an array-specific attribute called the Array Volume ID (AVID).
The AVID provides a unique identifier for the LUN that is provided by the array. The
ASL corresponding to the array provides the AVID property. Within an array
enclosure, DMP uses the Array Volume Identifier (AVID) as an index in the DMP
metanode name. The DMP metanode name is in the format enclosureID_AVID.
With the introduction of AVID to the enclosure-based naming (EBN) naming scheme,
identifying storage devices becomes much easier. The array volume identifier (AVID)
enables you to have consistent device naming across multiple nodes connected to
the same storage. The disk access name never changes, because it is based on
the name defined by the array itself.
Note: DMP does not support AVID with PowerPath names.
If DMP does not have access to a devices AVID, it retrieves another unique LUN
identifier called the LUN serial number. DMP sorts the devices based on the LUN
Serial Number (LSN), and then assigns the index number. All hosts see the same
set of devices, so all hosts will have the same sorted list, leading to consistent
device indices across the cluster. In this case, the DMP metanode name is in the
format enclosureID_index.
DMP also supports a scalable framework, that allows you to fully customize the
device names on a host by applying a device naming file that associates custom
names with cabinet and LUN serial numbers.
If a CLuster Volume Manager (CVM) cluster is symmetric, each node in the cluster
accesses the same set of disks. Enclosure-based names provide a consistent
naming system so that the device names are the same on each node.
The Symantec Storage Foundation (SF) utilities such as vxdisk list display the
DMP metanode name, which includes the AVID property. Use the AVID to correlate
the DMP metanode name to the LUN displayed in the array management interface
(GUI or CLI) .
For example, on an EMC CX array where the enclosure is emc_clariion0 and the
array volume ID provided by the ASL is 91, the DMP metanode name is
emc_clariion0_91. The following sample output shows the DMP metanode names:
$ vxdisk list
emc_clariion0_91
emc_clariion0_92
emc_clariion0_93
auto:cdsdisk
auto:cdsdisk
auto:cdsdisk
emc_clariion0_91
emc_clariion0_92
emc_clariion0_93
dg1
dg1
dg1
online shared
online shared
online shared
Managing devices
emc_clariion0_282 auto:cdsdisk
emc_clariion0_282
emc_clariion0_283
emc_clariion0_284
dg1
dg1
dg1
270
online shared
online shared
online shared
# vxddladm get namingscheme

NAMING_SCHEME
PERSISTENCE
LOWERCASE
USE_AVID
==========================================================
Enclosure Based
Yes
Yes
Yes

Depending on the hardware capabilities of your disks and of your system, you may
either need to shut down and power off your system before installing the disks, or
you may be able to hot-insert the disks into the live system. Many operating systems
can detect the presence of the new disks on being rebooted. If the disks are inserted
while the system is live, you may need to enter an operating system-specific
command to notify the system.
If the disks require low or intermediate-level formatting before use, use the operating
system-specific formatting command to do this.
Note: SCSI disks are usually preformatted. Reformatting is needed only if the existing
formatting has become damaged.
See Adding a disk to VxVM on page 270.

This section describes managing devices.
Adding a disk to VxVM

Formatted disks being placed under Veritas Volume Manager (VxVM) control may
be new or previously used outside VxVM.
The set of disks can consist of all disks on a controller, selected disks, or a
combination of these.
Depending on the circumstances, all of the disks may not be processed in the same
way.
For example, some disks may be initialized, while others may be encapsulated to
preserve existing data on the disks.
Managing devices
When initializing multiple disks at one time, it is possible to exclude certain disks
or certain controllers.
You can also exclude certain disks or certain controllers when encapsulating multiple
disks at one time.
To exclude a device from the view of VxVM, select Prevent
multipathing/Suppress devices from VxVMs view from the vxdiskadm main
menu.
Warning: Initialization does not preserve the existing data on the disks.
A disk cannot be initialized if it does not have a valid useable partition table. You
can use the fdisk command to create an empty partition table on a disk as shown
here:
# fdisk /dev/sdX
Command (m for help): o
Command (m for help): w
where /dev/sdX is the name of the disk device, for example, /dev/sdi.
Warning: The fdisk command can destroy data on the disk. Do not use this
command if the disk contains data that you want to preserve.
See Making devices invisible to VxVM on page 204.
271
Managing devices
To initialize disks for VxVM use
Select Add or initialize one or more disks from the vxdiskadm main
menu.
At the following prompt, enter the disk device name of the disk to be added to
VxVM control (or enter list for a list of disks):
Select disk devices to add:
[<pattern-list>,all,list,q,?]
The pattern-list can be a single disk, or a series of disks. If pattern-list consists

of multiple items, separate them using white space. For example, specify four
disks as follows:
sde sdf sdg sdh
If you enter list at the prompt, the vxdiskadm program displays a list of the
disks available to the system:
DEVICE
sdb
sdc
sdd
sde
sdf
sdg
DISK
mydg01
mydg02
mydg03
mydg04
-
GROUP
mydg
mydg
mydg
mydg
-
STATUS
online
online
online
online
online
online invalid
The phrase online invalid in the STATUS line indicates that a disk has yet
to be added or initialized for VxVM control. Disks that are listed as online with
a disk name and disk group are already under VxVM control.
Enter the device name or pattern of the disks that you want to initialize at the
prompt and press Return.
To continue with the operation, enter y (or press Return) at the following prompt:
Here are the disks selected. Output format: [Device]
list of device names
Continue operation? [y,n,q,?] (default: y) y
272
Managing devices
At the following prompt, specify the disk group to which the disk should be
added, or none to reserve the disks for future use:
You can choose to add these disks to an existing disk group,

a new disk group, or you can leave these disks available
by future add or replacement operations. To create a new
group, select a disk group name that does not yet exist.
leave the disks available for future use, specify a disk
name of none.
for use
disk
To
group
Which disk group [<group>,none,list,q,?]
If you specified the name of a disk group that does not already exist, vxdiskadm
prompts for confirmation that you really want to create this new disk group:
There is no active disk group named disk group name.
Create a new group named disk group name? [y,n,q,?]
(default: y)y
You are then prompted to confirm whether the disk group should support the
Cross-platform Data Sharing (CDS) feature:
Create the disk group as a CDS disk group? [y,n,q,?]
(default: n)
If the new disk group may be moved between different operating system
platforms, enter y. Otherwise, enter n.
At the following prompt, either press Return to accept the default disk name
or enter n to allow you to define your own disk names:
Use default disk names for the disks? [y,n,q,?] (default: y) n
When prompted whether the disks should become hot-relocation spares, enter
n (or press Return):
Add disks as spare disks for disk group name? [y,n,q,?]
(default: n) n
When prompted whether to exclude the disks from hot-relocation use, enter n
(or press Return).
Exclude disks from hot-relocation use? [y,n,q,?}
(default: n) n
273
Managing devices
You are next prompted to choose whether you want to add a site tag to the
disks:
Add site tag to disks? [y,n,q,?] (default: n)
A site tag is usually applied to disk arrays or enclosures, and is not required
unless you want to use the Remote Mirror feature.
If you enter y to choose to add a site tag, you are prompted to the site name
at step 11.
10 To continue with the operation, enter y (or press Return) at the following prompt:
The selected disks will be added to the disk group
disk group name with default disk names.
Continue with operation? [y,n,q,?] (default: y) y
11 If you chose to tag the disks with a site in step 9, you are now prompted to
enter the site name that should be applied to the disks in each enclosure:
The following disk(s):
belong to enclosure(s):
list of enclosure names
Enter site tag for disks on enclosure enclosure name
[<name>,q,?] site_name
274
Managing devices
12 If you see the following prompt, it lists any disks that have already been
initialized for use by VxVM:
The following disk devices appear to have been initialized
already.
The disks are currently available as replacement disks.
Output format: [Device]
Use these devices? [Y,N,S(elect),q,?] (default: Y) Y
This prompt allows you to indicate yes or no for all of these disks (Y or N)
or to select how to process each of these disks on an individual basis (S).
If you are sure that you want to reinitialize all of these disks, enter Y at the
following prompt:
VxVM NOTICE V-5-2-366 The following disks you selected for use
appear to already have been initialized for the Volume
Manager. If you are certain the disks already have been
initialized for the Volume Manager, then you do not need to
reinitialize these disk devices.
Reinitialize these devices? [Y,N,S(elect),q,?] (default: Y) Y
275
Managing devices
13
vxdiskadm may now indicate that one or more disks is a candidate for
encapsulation. Encapsulation allows you to add an active disk to VxVM control

and preserve the data on that disk.If you want to preserve the data on the disk,
enter y. If you are sure that there is no data on the disk that you want to
preserve, enter n to avoid encapsulation.
VxVM NOTICE V-5-2-355 The following disk device has a valid
partition table, but does not appear to have been initialized
for the Volume Manager. If there is data on the disk that
should NOT be destroyed you should encapsulate the existing
disk partitions as volumes instead of adding the disk as a new
disk.
device name
Encapsulate this device? [y,n,q,?] (default: y)
276
Managing devices
277
14 If you choose to encapsulate the disk, vxdiskadm confirms its device name
and prompts you for permission to proceed. Enter y (or press Return) to
continue encapsulation:
VxVM NOTICE V-5-2-311 The following disk device has been
selected for encapsulation.
device name
Continue with encapsulation? [y,n,q,?] (default: y) y
vxdiskadm now displays an encapsulation status and informs you
that you must perform a shutdown and reboot as soon as
possible:
VxVM INFO V-5-2-333 The disk device device name will be
encapsulated and added to the disk group disk group name with the
disk name disk name.
You can now choose whether the disk is to be formatted as a CDS disk that
is portable between different operating systems, or as a non-portable sliced or
simple disk:
Enter the desired format [cdsdisk,sliced,simple,q,?]
(default: cdsdisk)
Enter the format that is appropriate for your needs. In most cases, this is the
default format, cdsdisk.
At the following prompt, vxdiskadm asks if you want to use the default private
region size of 65536 blocks (32MB). Press Return to confirm that you want to
use the default value, or enter a different value. (The maximum value that you
can specify is 524288 blocks.)
Enter desired private region length [<privlen>,q,?]
(default: 65536)
If you entered cdsdisk as the format, you are prompted for the action to be
taken if the disk cannot be converted to this format:
Do you want to use sliced as the format should cdsdisk fail?
[y,n,q,?] (default: y)
If you enter y, and it is not possible to encapsulate the disk as a CDS disk, it
is encapsulated as a sliced disk. Otherwise, the encapsulation fails.
Managing devices
vxdiskadm then proceeds to encapsulate the disks. You should now reboot
your system at the earliest possible opportunity, for example by running this
command:
# shutdown -r now
The /etc/fstab file is updated to include the volume devices that are used to
mount any encapsulated file systems. You may need to update any other
references in backup scripts, databases, or manually created swap devices.
The original /etc/fstab file is saved as /etc/fstab.b4vxvm.
15 If you choose not to encapsulate the disk, vxdiskadm asks if you want to
initialize the disk instead. Enter y to confirm this:
Instead of encapsulating, initialize? [y,n,q,?] (default: n) yvxdiskadm now
confirms those disks that are being initialized and added to VxVM control with
messages similar to the following. In addition, you may be prompted to perform
surface analysis.
VxVM INFO V-5-2-205 Initializing device device name.
16 You can now choose whether the disk is to be formatted as a CDS disk that
simple disk:
(default: cdsdisk)
17 At the following prompt, vxdiskadm asks if you want to use the default private
(default: 65536)
vxdiskadm then proceeds to add the disks.
VxVM INFO V-5-2-88 Adding disk device device name to disk group
disk group name with disk name disk name.
.
.
.
278
Managing devices
18 If you choose not to use the default disk names, vxdiskadm prompts you to
enter the disk name.
19 At the following prompt, indicate whether you want to continue to initialize more
disks (y) or return to the vxdiskadm main menu (n):
Add or initialize other disks? [y,n,q,?] (default: n)
You can change the default layout for disks using the vxdisk command or the
vxdiskadm utility.
See the vxdiskadm(1M) manual page.
Disk reinitialization
You can reinitialize a disk that has previously been initialized for use by Veritas
Volume Manager (VxVM) by putting it under VxVM control as you would a new
disk.
Warning: Reinitialization does not preserve data on the disk. If you want to reinitialize
the disk, make sure that it does not contain data that should be preserved.
If the disk you want to add has been used before, but not with a volume manager,
you can encapsulate the disk to preserve its information. If the disk you want to add
has previously been under LVM control, you can preserve the data it contains on
a VxVM disk by the process of conversion.
For detailed information about migrating volumes, see the Symantec Storage
Foundation and High Availability Solutions Solutions Guide.
Using vxdiskadd to put a disk under VxVM control

You can add a disk to Veritas Volume Manager (VxVM) control with the vxdiskadd
command.
279
Managing devices
To use the vxdiskadd command to put a disk under VxVM control.

# vxdiskadd disk
For example, to initialize the disk sdb:

# vxdiskadd sdb
The vxdiskadd command examines your disk to determine whether it has

been initialized and also checks for disks that have been added to VxVM, and
for other conditions.
The vxdiskadd command also checks for disks that can be encapsulated.
See Encapsulating a disk on page 673.
If you are adding an uninitialized disk, the vxdiskadd command displays
warning and error messages on the console. Ignore these messages. These
messages should not appear after the disk has been fully initialized; the
vxdiskadd command displays a success message when the initialization
completes.
The interactive dialog for adding a disk using vxdiskadd is similar to that for
vxdiskadm.
Removing disks
This section describes how to remove a Veritas Volume Manager (VxVM) disk.
You must disable a disk group before you can remove the last disk in that group.
See Disabling a disk group on page 653.
As an alternative to disabling the disk group, you can destroy the disk group.
See Destroying a disk group on page 653.
You can remove a disk from a system and move it to another system if the disk is
failing or has failed.
280
Managing devices
To remove a disk
Stop all activity by applications to volumes that are configured on the disk that
is to be removed. Unmount file systems and shut down databases that are
configured on the volumes.
Use the following command to stop the volumes:

# vxvol [-g diskgroup] stop vol1 vol2 ...
Move the volumes to other disks or back up the volumes. To move a volume,
use vxdiskadm to mirror the volume on one or more disks, then remove the
original copy of the volume. If the volumes are no longer needed, they can be
removed instead of moved.
Check that any data on the disk has either been moved to other disks or is no
longer needed.
Select Remove a disk from the vxdiskadm main menu.
At the following prompt, enter the disk name of the disk to be removed:
Enter disk name [<disk>,list,q,?] mydg01
If there are any volumes on the disk, VxVM asks you whether they should be
evacuated from the disk. If you wish to keep the volumes, answer y. Otherwise,
answer n.
At the following verification prompt, press Return to continue:

VxVM NOTICE V-5-2-284 Requested operation is to remove disk
mydg01 from group mydg.
Continue with operation? [y,n,q,?] (default: y)
The vxdiskadm utility removes the disk from the disk group and displays the
following success message:
VxVM INFO V-5-2-268 Removal of disk mydg01 is complete.
You can now remove the disk or leave it on your system as a replacement.
At the following prompt, indicate whether you want to remove other disks (y)
or return to the vxdiskadm main menu (n):
Remove another disk? [y,n,q,?] (default: n)
281
Managing devices
Removing a disk with subdisks

You can remove a Veritas Volume Manager (VxVM) disk on which some subdisks
are defined. For example, you can consolidate all the volumes onto one disk. If you
use the vxdiskadm program to remove a disk, you can choose to move volumes
off that disk.
Some subdisks are not movable. A subdisk may not be movable for one of the
following reasons:
There is not enough space on the remaining disks in the subdisks disk group.
Plexes or striped subdisks cannot be allocated on different disks from existing

plexes or striped subdisks in the volume.
If the vxdiskadm program cannot move some subdisks, remove some plexes from
some disks to free more space before proceeding with the disk removal operation.
See Removing a volume on page 662.
To remove a disk with subdisks
Run the vxdiskadm program and select Remove a disk from the main menu.
If the disk is used by some subdisks, the following message is displayed:
VxVM ERROR V-5-2-369 The following volumes currently use part of
disk mydg02:
home usrvol
Volumes must be moved from mydg02 before it can be removed.
Move volumes to other disks? [y,n,q,?] (default: n)
Choose y to move all subdisks off the disk, if possible.
Removing a disk with no subdisks

You can remove a Veritas Volume Manager (VxVM) disk that contains no subdisks.
282
Managing devices
Renaming a disk
To remove a disk that contains no subdisks from its disk group
Run the vxdiskadm program and select Remove a disk from the main menu,
and respond to the prompts as shown in this example to remove mydg02:
VxVM NOTICE V-5-2-284 Requested operation is to remove disk
mydg02 from group mydg.
VxVM INFO V-5-2-268 Removal of disk mydg02 is complete.
Clobber disk headers? [y,n,q,?] (default: n) y
Enter y to remove the disk completely from VxVM control. If you do not want
to remove the disk completely from VxVM control, enter n.
Renaming a disk
Veritas Volume Manager (VxVM) gives the disk a default name when you add the
disk to VxVM control, unless you specify a VxVM disk name. VxVM uses the VxVM
disk name to identify the location of the disk or the disk type.
283
Managing devices
Renaming a disk
To rename a disk

# vxedit [-g diskgroup] rename old_diskname new_diskname
By default, VxVM names subdisk objects after the VxVM disk on which they
are located. Renaming a VxVM disk does not automatically rename the subdisks
on that disk.
For example, you might want to rename disk mydg03, as shown in the following
output from vxdisk list, to mydg02:
# vxdisk list
DEVICE
sdb
sdc
sdd
TYPE
auto:sliced
auto:sliced
auto:sliced
DISK
mydg01
mydg03
-
GROUP
mydg
mydg
-
STATUS
online
online
online
You would use the following command to rename the disk.

# vxedit -g mydg rename mydg03 mydg02
To confirm that the name change took place, use the vxdisk list command
again:
# vxdisk list
DEVICE
sdb
sdc
sdd
TYPE
auto:sliced
auto:sliced
auto:sliced
DISK
mydg01
mydg02
-
GROUP
mydg
mydg
-
STATUS
online
online
online
284
Chapter
12
Event monitoring
About the Dynamic Multi-Pathing (DMP) event source daemon (vxesd)
Fabric Monitoring and proactive error detection
Dynamic Multi-Pathing (DMP) discovery of iSCSI and SAN Fibre Channel

topology
DMP event logging
Starting and stopping the Dynamic Multi-Pathing (DMP) event source daemon
About the Dynamic Multi-Pathing (DMP) event source

daemon (vxesd)
The event source daemon (vxesd) is a Dynamic Multi-Pathing (DMP) component
process that receives notifications of any device-related events that are used to
take appropriate actions. The benefits of vxesd include:
Monitoring of SAN fabric events and proactive error detection (SAN event)
See Fabric Monitoring and proactive error detection on page 286.
Logging of DMP events for troubleshooting (DMP event)

See DMP event logging on page 287.
Automated device discovery (OS event)
Discovery of SAN components and HBA-array port connectivity (Fibre Channel

and iSCSI)
See Dynamic Multi-Pathing (DMP) discovery of iSCSI and SAN Fibre Channel
topology on page 287.
Event monitoring
See Starting and stopping the Dynamic Multi-Pathing (DMP) event source daemon
on page 288.

DMP takes a proactive role in detecting errors on paths.
The DMP event source daemon vxesd uses the Storage Networking Industry
Association (SNIA) HBA API library to receive SAN fabric events from the HBA.
DMP checks devices that are suspect based on the information from the SAN
events, even if there is no active I/O. New I/O is directed to healthy paths while
DMP verifies the suspect devices.
During startup, vxesd queries the HBA (by way of the SNIA library) to obtain the
SAN topology. The vxesd daemon determines the Port World Wide Names (PWWN)
that correspond to each of the device paths that are visible to the operating system.
After the vxesd daemon obtains the topology, vxesd registers with the HBA for SAN
event notification. If LUNs are disconnected from a SAN, the HBA notifies vxesd
of the SAN event, specifying the PWWNs that are affected. The vxesd daemon
uses this event information and correlates it with the previous topology information
to determine which set of device paths have been affected.
The vxesd daemon sends the affected set to the vxconfigd daemon (DDL) so that
the device paths can be marked as suspect.
When the path is marked as suspect, DMP does not send new I/O to the path unless
it is the last path to the device. In the background, the DMP restore task checks
the accessibility of the paths on its next periodic cycle using a SCSI inquiry probe.
If the SCSI inquiry fails, DMP disables the path to the affected LUNs, which is also
logged in the event log.
If the LUNs are reconnected at a later time, the HBA informs vxesd of the SAN
event. When the DMP restore task runs its next test cycle, the disabled paths are
checked with the SCSI probe and re-enabled if successful.
Note: If vxesd receives an HBA LINK UP event, the DMP restore task is restarted
and the SCSI probes run immediately, without waiting for the next periodic cycle.
When the DMP restore task is restarted, it starts a new periodic cycle. If the disabled
paths are not accessible by the time of the first SCSI probe, they are re-tested on
the next cycle (300s by default).
The fabric monitor functionality is enabled by default. The value of the
dmp_monitor_fabric tunable is persistent across restarts.
286
Event monitoring
Dynamic Multi-Pathing (DMP) discovery of iSCSI and SAN Fibre Channel topology
To display the current value of the dmp_monitor_fabric tunable, use the following
command:
# vxdmpadm gettune dmp_monitor_fabric
To disable the Fabric Monitoring functionality, use the following command:

# vxdmpadm settune dmp_monitor_fabric=off
To enable the Fabric Monitoring functionality, use the following command:

# vxdmpadm settune dmp_monitor_fabric=on
Dynamic Multi-Pathing (DMP) discovery of iSCSI and

SAN Fibre Channel topology
The vxesd builds a topology of iSCSI and Fibre Channel (FC) devices that are
visible to the host. The vxesd daemon uses the SNIA Fibre Channel HBA API to
obtain the SAN topology. If IMA is not available, then the iSCSI management CLI
is used to obtain the iSCSI SAN topology.
To display the hierarchical listing of Fibre Channel and iSCSI devices, use the
following command:
# vxddladm list
DMP event logging

See About the Dynamic Multi-Pathing (DMP) event source daemon (vxesd)
on page 285.
The event source daemon (vxesd) is a Dynamic Multi-Pathing (DMP) component
process that receives notifications of any device-related events that are used to
take appropriate actions.
DMP notifies vxesd of major events, and vxesd logs the event in a log file
(/etc/vx/dmpevents.log). These events include:
Marking paths or dmpnodes enabled
Marking paths or dmpnodes disabled
Throttling of paths
I/O error analysis
287
Event monitoring
Starting and stopping the Dynamic Multi-Pathing (DMP) event source daemon
HBA and SAN events
The log file is located in /var/adm/vx/dmpevents.log but is symbolically linked to

/etc/vx/dmpevents.log. When the file reaches 10,000 lines, the log is rotated.
That is, dmpevents.log is renamed dmpevents.log.X and a new dmpevents.log
file is created.
You can change the level of detail that is displayed in the system or console log
about the DMP events. Use the tunable dmp_log_level. Valid values are 1 through
9. The default level is 1.
# vxdmpadm settune dmp_log_level=X
The current value of dmp_log_level can be displayed with:

# vxdmpadm gettune dmp_log_level
For details on the various log levels, see the vxdmpadm(1M) manual page.
Starting and stopping the Dynamic Multi-Pathing

(DMP) event source daemon
By default, Dynamic Multi-Pathing (DMP) starts the event source daemon, vxesd,
at boot time.
To stop the vxesd daemon, use the vxddladm utility:
# vxddladm stop eventsource
To start the vxesd daemon, use the vxddladm utility:

# vxddladm start eventsource [logfile=logfilename]
To view the status of the vxesd daemon, use the vxddladm utility:
# vxddladm status eventsource
288
Section
Optimizing I/O performance
Chapter 13. Veritas File System I/O
Chapter 14. Veritas Volume Manager I/O
Chapter
13
Veritas File System I/O

About Veritas File System I/O
Buffered and Direct I/O
Concurrent I/O
Cache advisories
Freezing and thawing a file system
Getting the I/O size
About Storage Foundation and High Availability Solutions products database

accelerators
About Veritas File System I/O

VxFS processes two basic types of file system I/O:
Sequential
Random or I/O that is not sequential
For sequential I/O, VxFS employs a read-ahead policy by default when the
application is reading data. For writing, it allocates contiguous blocks if possible.
In most cases, VxFS handles I/O that is sequential through buffered I/O. VxFS
handles random or nonsequential I/O using direct I/O without buffering.
VxFS provides a set of I/O cache advisories for use when accessing files.
See the Veritas File System Programmer's Reference Guide.
See the vxfsio(7) manual page.


VxFS responds with read-ahead for sequential read I/O. This results in buffered
I/O. The data is prefetched and retained in buffers for the application. The data
buffers are commonly referred to as VxFS buffer cache. This is the default VxFS
behavior.
On the other hand, direct I/O does not buffer the data when the I/O to the underlying
device is completed. This saves system resources like memory and CPU usage.
Direct I/O is possible only when alignment and sizing criteria are satisfied.
See Direct I/O requirements on page 291.
All of the supported platforms have a VxFS buffered cache. Each platform also has
either a page cache or its own buffer cache. These caches are commonly known
as the file system caches.
Direct I/O does not use these caches. The memory used for direct I/O is discarded
after the I/O is complete, and is therefore not buffered.
Direct I/O
Direct I/O is an unbuffered form of I/O. If the VX_DIRECT advisory is set, the user is
requesting direct data transfer between the disk and the user-supplied buffer for
reads and writes. This bypasses the kernel buffering of data, and reduces the CPU
overhead associated with I/O by eliminating the data copy between the kernel buffer
and the user's buffer. This also avoids taking up space in the buffer cache that
might be better used for something else. The direct I/O feature can provide significant
performance gains for some applications.
The direct I/O and VX_DIRECT advisories are maintained on a per-file-descriptor
basis.
Direct I/O requirements

For an I/O operation to be performed as direct I/O, it must meet certain alignment
criteria. The alignment constraints are usually determined by the disk driver, the
disk controller, and the system memory management hardware and software.
The requirements for direct I/O are as follows:
The starting file offset must be aligned to a 512-byte boundary.
The ending file offset must be aligned to a 512-byte boundary, or the length
must be a multiple of 512 bytes.
The memory buffer must start on an 8-byte boundary.
291

Direct I/O versus synchronous I/O

Because direct I/O maintains the same data integrity as synchronous I/O, it can be
used in many applications that currently use synchronous I/O. If a direct I/O request
does not allocate storage or extend the file, the inode is not immediately written.
Direct I/O CPU overhead

The CPU cost of direct I/O is about the same as a raw disk transfer. For sequential
I/O to very large files, using direct I/O with large transfer sizes can provide the same
speed as buffered I/O with much less CPU overhead.
If the file is being extended or storage is being allocated, direct I/O must write the
inode change before returning to the application. This eliminates some of the
performance advantages of direct I/O.
Discovered Direct I/O

Discovered Direct I/O is a file system tunable that is set using the vxtunefs
command. When the file system gets an I/O request larger than the
discovered_direct_iosz, it tries to use direct I/O on the request. For large I/O
sizes, Discovered Direct I/O can perform much better than buffered I/O.
Discovered Direct I/O behavior is similar to direct I/O and has the same alignment
constraints, except writes that allocate storage or extend the file size do not require
writing the inode changes before returning to the application.
Unbuffered I/O
If the VX_UNBUFFERED advisory is set, I/O behavior is the same as direct I/O with
the VX_DIRECT advisory set, so the alignment constraints that apply to direct I/O
also apply to unbuffered I/O. For unbuffered I/O, however, if the file is being
extended, or storage is being allocated to the file, inode changes are not updated
synchronously before the write returns to the user. The VX_UNBUFFERED advisory
is maintained on a per-file-descriptor basis.
Data synchronous I/O

If the VX_DSYNC advisory is set, the user is requesting data synchronous I/O. In
synchronous I/O, the data is written, and the inode is written with updated times
and, if necessary, an increased file size. In data synchronous I/O, the data is
transferred to disk synchronously before the write returns to the user. If the file is
not extended by the write, the times are updated in memory, and the call returns
to the user. If the file is extended by the operation, the inode is written before the
write returns.
292

Concurrent I/O
The direct I/O and VX_DSYNC advisories are maintained on a per-file-descriptor

basis.
Data synchronous I/O vs. synchronous I/O

Like direct I/O, the data synchronous I/O feature can provide significant application
performance gains. Because data synchronous I/O maintains the same data integrity
as synchronous I/O, it can be used in many applications that currently use
synchronous I/O. If the data synchronous I/O does not allocate storage or extend
the file, the inode is not immediately written. The data synchronous I/O does not
have any alignment constraints, so applications that find it difficult to meet the
alignment constraints of direct I/O should use data synchronous I/O.
If the file is being extended or storage is allocated, data synchronous I/O must write
the inode change before returning to the application. This case eliminates the
performance advantage of data synchronous I/O.
Concurrent I/O
Concurrent I/O (VX_CONCURRENT) allows multiple processes to read from or write to
the same file without blocking other read(2) or write(2) calls. POSIX semantics
requires read and write calls to be serialized on a file with other read and write
calls. With POSIX semantics, a read call either reads the data before or after the
write call occurred. With the VX_CONCURRENT advisory set, the read and write
operations are not serialized as in the case of a character device. This advisory is
generally used by applications that require high performance for accessing data
and do not perform overlapping writes to the same file. It is the responsibility of the
application or the running threads to coordinate the write activities to the same
file when using Concurrent I/O.
Concurrent I/O can be enabled in the following ways:
By specifying the VX_CONCURRENT advisory flag for the file descriptor in the
VX_SETCACHE ioctl command. Only the read(2) and write(2) calls occurring
through this file descriptor use concurrent I/O. The read and write operations
occurring through other file descriptors for the same file will still follow the POSIX
semantics.
See vxfsio(7) manual page.
By using the cio mount option. The read(2) and write(2) operations occurring
on all of the files in this particular file system will use concurrent I/O.
See cio mount option on page 167.
293

Cache advisories
Cache advisories
VxFS allows an application to set cache advisories for use when accessing files.
VxFS cache advisories enable applications to help monitor the buffer cache and
provide information on how better to tune the buffer cache to improve performance
gain.
The basic function of the cache advisory is to let you know whether you could have
avoided a later re-read of block X if the buffer cache had been a little larger.
Conversely, the cache advisory can also let you know that you could safely reduce
the buffer cache size without putting block X into jeopardy.
These advisories are in memory only and do not persist across reboots. Some
advisories are currently maintained on a per-file, not a per-file-descriptor, basis.
Only one set of advisories can be in effect for all accesses to the file. If two conflicting
applications set different advisories, both must use the advisories that were last
set.
All advisories are set using the VX_SETCACHE ioctl command. The current set of
advisories can be obtained with the VX_GETCACHE ioctl command.
See the vxfsio(7) manual page.
Freezing and thawing a file system

Freezing a file system is a necessary step for obtaining a stable and consistent
image of the file system at the volume level. Consistent volume-level file system
images can be obtained and used with a file system snapshot tool. The freeze
operation flushes all buffers and pages in the file system cache that contain dirty
metadata and user data. The operation then suspends any new activity on the file
system until the file system is thawed.
The VX_FREEZE ioctl command is used to freeze a file system. Freezing a file system
temporarily blocks all I/O operations to a file system and then performs a sync on
the file system. When the VX_FREEZE ioctl is issued, all access to the file system is
blocked at the system call level. Current operations are completed and the file
system is synchronized to disk.
When the file system is frozen, any attempt to use the frozen file system, except
for a VX_THAW ioctl command, is blocked until a process executes the VX_THAW ioctl
command or the time-out on the freeze expires.
294


VxFS provides the VX_GET_IOPARAMETERS ioctl to get the recommended I/O sizes
to use on a file system. This ioctl can be used by the application to make decisions
about the I/O sizes issued to VxFS for a file or file device.
See the vxtunefs(1M) and vxfsio(7) manual pages.
About Storage Foundation and High Availability

Solutions products database accelerators
The major concern in any environment is maintaining respectable performance or
meeting performance service level agreements (SLAs). Symantec Storage
Foundation and High Availability Solutions products improve the overall performance
of database environments in a variety of ways.
Table 13-1
Storage Foundation and High Availability Solutions database

accelerators
SFHA Solutions
Supported
database accelerator databases
Use cases and considerations
Oracle Disk Manager

(ODM)
Oracle
Cached Oracle Disk

Manager (Cached OD
M)
Oracle
To improve Oracle performance and

manage system bandwidth through an
improved Application Programming
Interface (API) that contains advanced
kernel support for file I/O.
To use Oracle Resilvering and turn off
Veritas Volume Manager Dirty Region
Logging (DRL) to increase
performance, use ODM.
To reduce the time required to restore
consistency, freeing more I/O
bandwidth for business-critical
applications, use SmartSync recovery
accelerator.
To enable selected I/O to use caching to

improve ODM I/O performance, use
Cached ODM.
295

About Storage Foundation and High Availability Solutions products database accelerators
Table 13-1
Storage Foundation and High Availability Solutions database

accelerators (continued)
SFHA Solutions
Supported
database accelerator databases
Use cases and considerations
Concurrent I/O
Concurrent I/O (CIO) is optimized for DB2

and Sybase environments
DB2
Sybase
To achieve improved performance for

databases run on VxFS file systems
without restrictions on increasing file size,
use Symantec Concurrent I/O.
These database accelerator technologies enable database performance equal to

raw disk partitions, but with the manageability benefits of a file system. With the
Dynamic Multi-pathing (DMP) feature of Storage Foundation, performance is
maximized by load-balancing I/O activity across all available paths from server to
array. DMP supports all major hardware RAID vendors, hence there is no need for
third-party multi-pathing software, reducing the total cost of ownership.
Storage Foundation and High Availability Solutions database accelerators enable
you to manage performance for your database with more precision.
For details about using ODM and Cached ODM for Oracle, see Symantec Storage
Foundation: Storage and Availability Management for Oracle Databases.
For details about using Concurrent I/O for DB2, see Symantec Storage Foundation:
Storage and Availability Management for DB2 Databases.
296
Chapter
14
Veritas Volume Manager I/O

Veritas Volume Manager throttling of administrative I/O
Veritas Volume Manager throttling of administrative

I/O
Veritas Volume Manager (VxVM) provides throttling of administrative I/O. During
heavy I/O loads, VxVM throttles I/O that it creates to do administrative operations.
This behavior ensures that the administrative I/Os do not affect the application I/O
performance. When the application I/O load is lighter, VxVM increases the bandwidth
usage for administrative I/O operations.
VxVM automatically manages the I/O throttling for administrative tasks, based on
its perceived load on the storage. Currently, I/O throttling is supported for the copy
operations which use ATOMIC_COPY and involve one destination mirror. The I/O
throttling is transparent, and does not change the command usage or output. The
following commands are supported:
vxassist mirror
vxassist snapcreate
vxevac
vxplex att
vxplex cp
vxplex mv
vxsnap addmir
vxsnap reattach
Veritas Volume Manager I/O

Veritas Volume Manager throttling of administrative I/O
vxsd mv
The administrative I/O operations allocate memory for I/O from a separate memory
pool. You can tune the maximum size of this pool with the tunable parameter,
vol_max_adminio_poolsz.
298
Section
Using Point-in-time copies
Chapter 15. Understanding point-in-time copy methods
Chapter 16. Administering volume snapshots
Chapter 17. Administering Storage Checkpoints
Chapter 18. Administering FileSnaps
Chapter 19. Administering snapshot file systems
Chapter
15
Understanding
point-in-time copy methods
About point-in-time copies
When to use point-in-time copies
About Storage Foundation point-in-time copy technologies
Volume-level snapshots
Storage Checkpoints
About FileSnaps
About snapshot file systems
About point-in-time copies

Symantec Storage Foundation offers a flexible and efficient means of managing
business-critical data. Storage Foundation lets you capture an online image of an
actively changing database at a given instant, called a point-in-time copy.
More and more, the expectation is that the data must be continuously available
(24x7) for transaction processing, decision making, intellectual property creation,
and so forth. Protecting the data from loss or destruction is also increasingly
important. Formerly, data was taken out of service so that the data did not change
while data backups occured; however, this option does not meet the need for minimal
down time.
A point-in-time copy enables you to maximize the online availability of the data.
You can perform system backup, upgrade, or perform other maintenance tasks on
Understanding point-in-time copy methods

the point-in-time copies. The point-in-time copies can be processed on the same
host as the active data, or a different host. If required, you can offload processing
of the point-in-time copies onto another host to avoid contention for system resources
on your production server. This method is called off-host processing. If implemented
correctly, off-host processing solutions have almost no impact on the performance
of the primary production system.
For more information about how to use point-in-time copies for particular use cases,
see the Symantec Storage Foundation and High Availability Solutions Solutions
Guide.

The following typical activities are suitable for point-in-time copy solutions
implemented using Symantec FlashSnap:
Data backup Many enterprises require 24 x 7 data availability. They cannot

afford the downtime involved in backing up critical data offline. By taking
snapshots of your data, and backing up from these snapshots, your
business-critical applications can continue to run without extended downtime
or impacted performance.
Providing data continuity To provide continuity of service in the event of primary

storage failure, you can use point-in-time copy solutions to recover application
data. In the event of server failure, you can use point-in-time copy solutions in
conjunction with the high availability cluster functionality of Symantec Storage
Foundation Cluster File System HA or Symantec Storage Foundation HA.
Decision support analysis and reportingOperations such as decision support

analysis and business reporting may not require access to real-time information.
You can direct such operations to use a replica database that you have created
from snapshots, rather than allow them to compete for access to the primary
database. When required, you can quickly resynchronize the database copy
with the data in the primary database.
Testing and trainingDevelopment or service groups can use snapshots as

test data for new applications. Snapshot data provides developers, system
testers and QA groups with a realistic basis for testing the robustness, integrity
and performance of new applications.
Database error recoveryLogic errors caused by an administrator or an

application program can compromise the integrity of a database. You can recover
a database more quickly by restoring the database files by using Storage
Checkpoints or a snapshot copy than by full restoration from tape or other backup
media.
301

Use Storage Checkpoints to quickly roll back a database instance to an earlier

point in time.
Cloning dataYou can clone your file system or application data. This
functionality enable you to quickly and efficiently provision virtual desktops.
All of the snapshot solutions mentioned above are also available on the disaster
recovery site, in conjunction with Volume Replicator.
For more information about snapshots with replication, see the Symantec Storage
Foundation and High Availability Solutions Replication Administrator's Guide.
Symantec Storage Foundation provides several point-in-time copy solutions that
support your needs, including the following use cases:
Creating a replica database for decision support.
Backing up and recovering a database with snapshots.
Backing up and recovering an off-host cluster file system
Backing up and recovering an online database.
Implementing point-in time copy solutions on a primary host

Figure 15-1 illustrates the steps that are needed to set up the processing solution
on the primary host.
302

Figure 15-1
303
Using snapshots and FastResync to implement point-in-time copy

solutions on a primary host
Primary host
1. Prepare the volumes

If required, create a cache or empty
volume in the disk group, and use vxsnap
prepare to prepare volumes for snapshot
creation.
Volume
Cache or
empty
volume
2. Create instant snapshot volumes

Use vxsnap make to create instant
snapshot volumes of one or more
volumes.
Volume
Snapshot
volume
3. Refresh the instant snapshots

If required, use vxsnap refresh to update the
snapshot volumes and make them ready for
more processing.
Volume
Snapshot
volume
Volume
Snapshot
volume
4. Apply processing
Apply the desired processing application
to the snapshot volumes.
Repeat steps
3 and 4 as
required.
Note: The Disk Group Split/Join functionality is not used. As all processing takes
place in the same disk group, synchronization of the contents of the snapshots from
the original volumes is not usually required unless you want to prevent disk
contention. Snapshot creation and updating are practically instantaneous.
Figure 15-2 shows the suggested arrangement for implementing solutions where
the primary host is used and disk contention is to be avoided.

Figure 15-2
Example point-in-time copy solution on a primary host
Primary host
Disks containing primary

volumes used to hold
production databases or file
systems
SCSI or Fibre
Channel connectivity
Disks containing synchronized

full-sized instant snapshot
volumes
In this setup, it is recommended that separate paths (shown as 1 and 2) from

separate controllers be configured to the disks containing the primary volumes and
the snapshot volumes. This avoids contention for disk access, but the primary hosts
CPU, memory and I/O resources are more heavily utilized when the processing
application is run.
Note: For space-optimized or unsynchronized full-sized instant snapshots, it is not
possible to isolate the I/O pathways in this way. This is because such snapshots
only contain the contents of changed regions from the original volume. If applications
access data that remains in unchanged regions, this is read from the original volume.
Implementing off-host point-in-time copy solutions

Figure 15-3 illustrates that, by accessing snapshot volumes from a lightly loaded
host (shown here as the OHP host), CPU- and I/O-intensive operations for online
backup and decision support are prevented from degrading the performance of the
primary host that is performing the main production activity (such as running a
database).
304

Figure 15-3
Example implementation of an off-host point-in-time copy solution

OHP host
Primary Host
Network

production databases or file
systems
SCSI or Fibre
Disks containing snapshot

volumes
Also, if you place the snapshot volumes on disks that are attached to host controllers
other than those for the disks in the primary volumes, it is possible to avoid
contending with the primary host for I/O resources. To implement this, paths 1 and
2 shown in the Figure 15-3 should be connected to different controllers.
Figure 15-4 shows an example of how you might achieve such connectivity using
Fibre Channel technology with 4 Fibre Channel controllers in the primary host.
305

Figure 15-4
Example connectivity for off-host solution using redundant-loop

access
OHP host
Primary host
Network
c1 c2
c1 c2
c3 c4
c3 c4
Fibre Channel
hubs or switches
Disk arrays
This layout uses redundant-loop access to deal with the potential failure of any
single component in the path between a system and a disk array.
Note: On some operating systems, controller names may differ from what is shown
here.
Figure 15-5 shows how off-host processing might be implemented in a cluster by
configuring one of the cluster nodes as the OHP node.
306

Figure 15-5

using a cluster node
Cluster
Cluster node configured as

OHP host
1

production databases or
file systems
SCSI or Fibre Channel

connectivity

volumes used to implement
off-host processing solutions
Figure 15-6 shows an alternative arrangement, where the OHP node could be a
separate system that has a network connection to the cluster, but which is not a
cluster node and is not connected to the clusters private network.
Figure 15-6

using a separate OHP host
OHP host
Cluster
Network

production databases or
file systems
SCSI or Fibre

volumes used to implement
off-host processing solutions
307

Note: For off-host processing, the example scenarios in this document assume that
a separate OHP host is dedicated to the backup or decision support role. For
clusters, it may be simpler, and more efficient, to configure an OHP host that is not
a member of the cluster.
Figure 15-7 illustrates the steps that are needed to set up the processing solution
on the primary host.
308

Figure 15-7
309
Implementing off-host processing solutions

OHP host
Primary host or cluster
1. Prepare the volumes

If required, create an empty volume
in the disk group, and use vxsnap
prepare to prepare volumes for
snapshot creation.
Volume
Empty
volume
2. Create snapshot volumes

Use vxsnap make to create
synchronized snapshot volumes.
(Use vxsnap print to check the
status of synchronization.)
Volume
Snapshot
volume
3. Refresh snapshot mirrors

If required, use vxsnap refresh to
update the snapshot volumes.
(Use vxsnap print to check the
status of synchronization.)
Volume
Snapshot
volume
4. Split and deport disk group

Use vxdg split to move the disks
containing the snapshot volumes to
a separate disk group. Use vxdg
deport to deport this disk group.
Volume
Snapshot
volume
5. Import disk group

Use vxdg import to import the disk
group containing the snapshot
volumes on the OHP host.
Volume
Snapshot
volume
6. Apply off-host processing

Apply the desired off-host
processing application to the
snapshot volume on the OHP host.
Volume
Snapshot
volume
7. Deport disk group

Use vxdg deport to deport the disk
volumes from the OHP host.
Volume
Snapshot
volume
deport
import
deport
8. Import disk group

Use vxdg import to import the disk
volumes on the primary host.
Volume
Snapshot
volume
9. Join disk groups

Use vxdg join to merge the disk
volumes with the original volumes
disk group.
Volume
Snapshot
volume
import
Repeat steps 3
through 9 as required
Disk Group Split/Join is used to split off snapshot volumes into a separate disk
group that is imported on the OHP host.

Note: As the snapshot volumes are to be moved into another disk group and then
imported on another host, their contents must first be synchronized with the parent
volumes. On reimporting the snapshot volumes, refreshing their contents from the
original volume is speeded by using FastResync.
About Storage Foundation point-in-time copy

technologies
This topic introduces the point-in-time copy solutions that you can implement using
the Veritas FlashSnap technology. Veritas FlashSnap technology requires a
license.
Symantec FlashSnap offers a flexible and efficient means of managing business
critical data. It allows you to capture an online image of actively changing data at
a given instant: a point-in-time copy. You can perform system backup, upgrade and
other maintenance tasks on point-in-time copies while providing continuous
availability of your critical data. If required, you can offload processing of the
point-in-time copies onto another host to avoid contention for system resources on
your production server.
The following kinds of point-in-time copy solution are supported by the FlashSnap
license:
Volume-level solutions. There are several types of volume-level snapshots.

These features are suitable for solutions where separate storage is desirable
to create the snapshot. For example, lower-tier storage. Some of these
techniques provided exceptional offhost processing capabilities.
File system-level solutions use the Storage Checkpoint feature of Veritas File
System. Storage Checkpoints are suitable for implementing solutions where
storage space is critical for:
File systems that contain a small number of mostly large files.
Application workloads that change a relatively small proportion of file system

data blocks (for example, web server content and some databases).
Applications where multiple writable copies of a file system are required for
testing or versioning.
See Storage Checkpoints on page 316.
File level snapshots.

The FileSnap feature provides snapshots at the level of individual files.
310

Comparison of Point-in-time copy solutions

The following table shows a side-by-side comparison of the Storage Foundation
Point-in-time copy solutions.
Table 15-1
Comparison of Point-in-time copy solutions
Solution
Granularity Location Snapshot

of
technique
snapped
data
Internal
content
Exported
content
Can be
moved
off-host
Instant
full-sized
snapshot
Volume
Separate
volume
Changed
regions/ Full
volume
Read/Write
volume
Yes, after
Immediate
synchronization
Instant
space
optimized
snapshot
Volume
Cache
Copy on write
object
(Separate
cache
volume)
Changed
regions
Read/Write
volume
No
Linked plex
break-off
Volume
Separate
volume
Copy on write/
Full copy
Changed
regions/ Full
volume
Read/Write
volume
Yes, after
Immediate
synchronization
Plex
break-off
using
vxsnap
Volume
Separate
volume
Copy on write/
Full copy
Changed
regions/ Full
volume
Read/Write
volume
Yes, after
Immediate
synchronization
Traditional
plex
break-off
using
vxassist
Volume
Separate
volume
Full copy
Full volume
Read/Write
volume
Yes, after
After full
synchronization synchronization
Storage
Checkpoint
File system
Space
within file
system
Copy on write
Changed file Read/Write

system blocks file system
No
Immediate
File system
snapshot
File system
Separate
volume
Copy on write
Changed file Read-only file No

system blocks system
Immediate
FileSnap
File
Space
within file
system
Copy on
Changed file Read/Write
write/Lazy copy system blocks file system
on write
Copy on write/
Full copy
No
Availability
Immediate
Immediate
311

A volume snapshot is an image of a Veritas Volume Manager (VxVM) volume at a
given point in time. You can also take a snapshot of a volume set.
Volume snapshots allow you to make backup copies of your volumes online with
minimal interruption to users. You can then use the backup copies to restore data
that has been lost due to disk failure, software errors or human mistakes, or to
create replica volumes for the purposes of report generation, application
development, or testing.
Volume snapshots can also be used to implement off-host online backup.
Physically, a snapshot may be a full (complete bit-for-bit) copy of the data set, or
it may contain only those elements of the data set that have been updated since
snapshot creation. The latter are sometimes referred to as allocate-on-first-write
snapshots, because space for data elements is added to the snapshot image only
when the elements are updated (overwritten) for the first time in the original data
set. Storage Foundation allocate-on-first-write snapshots are called space-optimized
snapshots.
Persistent FastResync of volume snapshots

If persistent FastResync is enabled on a volume, VxVM uses a FastResync map
to keep track of which blocks are updated in the volume and in the snapshot.
When snapshot volumes are reattached to their original volumes, persistent
FastResync allows the snapshot data to be quickly refreshed and re-used. Persistent
FastResync uses disk storage to ensure that FastResync maps survive both system
and cluster crashes. If persistent FastResync is enabled on a volume in a private
disk group, incremental resynchronization can take place even if the host is rebooted.
Persistent FastResync can track the association between volumes and their
snapshot volumes after they are moved into different disk groups. After the disk
groups are rejoined, persistent FastResync allows the snapshot plexes to be quickly
resynchronized.
Data integrity in volume snapshots

A volume snapshot captures the data that exists in a volume at a given point in
time. As such, VxVM does not have any knowledge of data that is cached in memory
by the overlying file system, or by applications such as databases that have files
open in the file system. Snapshots are always crash consistent, that is, the snapshot
can be put to use by letting the application perform its recovery. This is similar to
how the application recovery occurs after a server crash. If the fsgen volume usage
type is set on a volume that contains a mounted Veritas File System (VxFS), VxVM
312

coordinates with VxFS to flush data that is in the cache to the volume. Therefore,
these snapshots are always VxFS consistent and require no VxFS recovery while
mounting.
For databases, a suitable mechanism must additionally be used to ensure the
integrity of tablespace data when the volume snapshot is taken. The facility to
temporarily suspend file system I/O is provided by most modern database software.
The examples provided in this document illustrate how to perform this operation.
For ordinary files in a file system, which may be open to a wide variety of different
applications, there may be no way to ensure the complete integrity of the file data
other than by shutting down the applications and temporarily unmounting the file
system. In many cases, it may only be important to ensure the integrity of file data
that is not in active use at the time that you take the snapshot. However, in all
scenarios where application coordinate, snapshots are crash-recoverable.
Third-mirror break-off snapshots

A plex break-off snapshot uses an additional mirror to create the snapshot. Although
you can create a plex break-off snapshot for a single plex volume, typically you
take a snapshot of a mirrored volume. A mirrored volume has more than one plex
or mirror, each of which is a copy of the data. The snapshot operation "breaks off"
the plex, which becomes the snapshot volume. You can break off an existing plex
or add a new plex specifically to serve as the snapshot mirror. Generally, you want
to maintain redundancy for the original volume. If the original volume is a mirrored
volume with two plexes, you add a third mirror for the snapshot. Hence, this type
of snapshot is also known as a third-mirror snapshot.
The snapshot plex must be on a different disk from the existing plexes in the volume,
within the same disk group. The disk must have enough disk space to contain the
contents of the existing volume. If you have a one terabyte volume, you must have
an additional one terabyte of disk space.
When you create the snapshot, the plexes are separated into two volumes. The
original volume retains its original plex or plexes. The snapshot volume contains
the snapshot plex. The original volume continues to take on I/O. The snapshot
volume retains the data at the point of time when the snapshot was created, until
you choose to perform processing on that volume.
You can make multiple snapshots, so you can have multiple copies of the original
data.
Third-mirror break-off snapshots are suitable for write-intensive volumes (such as
for database redo logs) where the copy-on-write mechanism of space-optimized or
full-sized instant snapshots might degrade performance.
313

Space-optimized instant volume snapshots

Space-optimized snapshots do not contain complete physical images of the original
data objects they represent. Space-optimized instant snapshots record changed
regions in the original volume to a storage cache. As the original volume is written
to, VxVM preserves its data in the cache before the write is committed. As the
storage cache typically requires much less storage than the original volume, it is
referred to as space-optimized. Space-optimized snapshots consume storage and
I/O bandwidth in proportion to how much data on the original volume is updated
during the life of the snapshot.
The benefits of space-optimized instant snapshots include immediate availability
for use, quick refreshment, and easier configuration and administration. Because
space-optimized snapshots consume less storage and I/O bandwidth than full-copy
snapshots, you can take the snapshots much more frequently. This makes them
well-suited for recovering from data corruption.
Space-optimized snapshots naturally tend to grow with age, as more of the data in
the original objects changes, so they are inherently better-suited for shorter lifetimes.
Space-optimized snapshots cannot be taken off-host for auxiliary processing.
How space-optimized instant snapshots work

Space-optimized snapshots use a copy-on-write mechanism to make them
immediately available for use when they are first created, or when their data is
refreshed.
You can configure a single storage cache in a disk group that can be shared by all
the volumes in that disk group. If so, the name of the cache that is declared must
be the same for each volumes space-optimized snapshot. The cache is stored on
disk and is persistent.
If the cache approaches full, configure VxVM to grow the cache automatically using
any available free space in the disk group.
Figure 15-8 shows the instant space-optimized snapshot model.
314

Space-optimized instant snapshot creation and usage in a backup

cycle
Figure 15-8
Start
vxsnap prepare
vxsnap make
Original volume
Snapshot volume
vxsnap refresh
Backup
cycle
Back up to disk, tape or

other media
See Creating and managing space-optimized instant snapshots on page 346.
Choices for snapshot resynchronization

When a snapshot volume is reattached to its original volume within a shared disk
group, there are two choices for resynchronizing the data in the volume:
Resynchronize the snapshot from the original volumeupdates the snapshot

with data from the primary volume that has changed since the snapshot was
taken. The snapshot is then again ready to be taken for the purposes of backup
or decision support. This type of resynchronization is also known as refreshing
the snapshot.
Resynchronize the original volume from the snapshotupdates the original

volume with data from the snapshot volume that has changed since the snapshot
was taken. This may be necessary to restore the state of a corrupted database
or file system, or to implement upgrades to production software, and is usually
much quicker than using alternative approaches such as full restoration from
backup media. This type of resynchronization is also known as restoring the
snapshot from the copy or replica.
Disk group split/join

One or more volumes, such as snapshot volumes, can be split off into a separate
disk group and deported. They are then ready for importing on another host that is
dedicated to off-host processing. This host need not be a member of a cluster but
it must have access to the disks on which the volumes are configured. At a later
stage, the disk group can be deported, re-imported, and joined with the original disk
group, or with a different disk group.
315

Storage Checkpoints
Note: As space-optimized instant snapshots only record information about changed

regions in the original volume, they cannot be moved to a different disk group. They
are therefore unsuitable for the off-host processing applications that are described
in this document.
The contents of full-sized instant snapshots must be fully synchronized with the
unchanged regions in the original volume before such snapshots can be moved
into a different disk group and deported from a host.
Storage Checkpoints
A Storage Checkpoint is a persistent image of a file system at a given instance in
time. Storage Checkpoints use a copy-on-write technique to reduce I/O overhead
by identifying and maintaining only those file system blocks that have changed
since a previous Storage Checkpoint was taken. Storage Checkpoints have the
following important features:
Storage Checkpoints persist across system reboots and crashes.
A Storage Checkpoint can preserve not only file system metadata and the
directory hierarchy of the file system, but also user data as it existed when the
Storage Checkpoint was taken.
After creating a Storage Checkpoint of a mounted file system, you can continue
to create, remove, and update files on the file system without affecting the image
of the Storage Checkpoint.
Unlike file system snapshots, Storage Checkpoints are writable.
To minimize disk space usage, Storage Checkpoints use free space in the file
system.
Storage Checkpoints and the Storage Rollback feature of Symantec Storage

Foundation for Databases enable rapid recovery of databases from logical errors
such as database corruption, missing files and dropped table spaces. You can
mount successive Storage Checkpoints of a database to locate the error, and then
roll back the database to a Storage Checkpoint before the problem occurred.
Symantec NetBackup for Oracle Advanced BLI Agent uses Storage Checkpoints
to enhance the speed of backing up Oracle databases.
See the Symantec NetBackup for Oracle Advanced BLI Agent System
Administrators Guide.
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Storage Checkpoints
How Storage Checkpoints differ from snapshots

Storage Checkpoints differ from Veritas File System snapshots in the following
ways because they:
Allow write operations to the Storage Checkpoint itself.
Persist after a system reboot or failure.
Share the same pool of free space as the file system.
Maintain a relationship with other Storage Checkpoints by identifying changed

file blocks since the last Storage Checkpoint.
Can have multiple, read-only Storage Checkpoints that reduce I/O operations
and required storage space because the most recent Storage Checkpoint is the
only one that accumulates updates from the primary file system.
Can restore the file system to its state at the time that the Storage Checkpoint
was taken.
Various backup and replication solutions can take advantage of Storage

Checkpoints. The ability of Storage Checkpoints to track the file system blocks that
have changed since the last Storage Checkpoint facilitates backup and replication
applications that only need to retrieve the changed data. Storage Checkpoints
significantly minimize data movement and may promote higher availability and data
integrity by increasing the frequency of backup and replication solutions.
Storage Checkpoints can be taken in environments with a large number of files,
such as file servers with millions of files, with little adverse impact on performance.
Because the file system does not remain frozen during Storage Checkpoint creation,
applications can access the file system even while the Storage Checkpoint is taken.
However, Storage Checkpoint creation may take several minutes to complete
depending on the number of files in the file system.
How a Storage Checkpoint works

The Storage Checkpoint facility freezes the mounted file system (known as the
primary fileset), initializes the Storage Checkpoint, and thaws the file system.
Specifically, the file system is first brought to a stable state where all of its data is
written to disk, and the freezing process momentarily blocks all I/O operations to
the file system. A Storage Checkpoint is then created without any actual data; the
Storage Checkpoint instead points to the block map of the primary fileset. The
thawing process that follows restarts I/O operations to the file system.
You can create a Storage Checkpoint on a single file system or a list of file systems.
A Storage Checkpoint of multiple file systems simultaneously freezes the file
systems, creates a Storage Checkpoint on all of the file systems, and thaws the
file systems. As a result, the Storage Checkpoints for multiple file systems have
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Storage Checkpoints
the same creation timestamp. The Storage Checkpoint facility guarantees that
multiple file system Storage Checkpoints are created on all or none of the specified
file systems, unless there is a system crash while the operation is in progress.
Note: The calling application is responsible for cleaning up Storage Checkpoints
after a system crash.
A Storage Checkpoint of the primary fileset initially contains only pointers to the
existing data blocks in the primary fileset, and does not contain any allocated data
blocks of its own.
Figure 15-9 shows the file system /database and its Storage Checkpoint. The
Storage Checkpoint is logically identical to the primary fileset when the Storage
Checkpoint is created, but it does not contain any actual data blocks.
Figure 15-9
Primary fileset and its Storage Checkpoint
Primary fileset
Storage Checkpoint
/database
emp.dbf
/database
jun.dbf
emp.dbf
jun.dbf
In Figure 15-10, a square represents each block of the file system. This figure shows
a Storage Checkpoint containing pointers to the primary fileset at the time the
Storage Checkpoint is taken, as in Figure 15-9.
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Storage Checkpoints
Figure 15-10
Initializing a Storage Checkpoint
Primary fileset
Storage Checkpoint
The Storage Checkpoint presents the exact image of the file system by finding the
data from the primary fileset. VxFS updates a Storage Checkpoint by using the
copy-on-write technique.
See Copy-on-write on page 319.
Copy-on-write
In Figure 15-11, the third data block in the primary fileset originally containing C is
updated.
Before the data block is updated with new data, the original data is copied to the
Storage Checkpoint. This is called the copy-on-write technique, which allows the
Storage Checkpoint to preserve the image of the primary fileset when the Storage
Checkpoint is taken.
Every update or write operation does not necessarily result in the process of copying
data to the Storage Checkpoint because the old data needs to be saved only once.
As blocks in the primary fileset continue to change, the Storage Checkpoint
accumulates the original data blocks. In this example, subsequent updates to the
third data block, now containing C', are not copied to the Storage Checkpoint
because the original image of the block containing C is already saved.
319

Storage Checkpoints
Figure 15-11
Updates to the primary fileset
Primary fileset
Storage Checkpoint
Storage Checkpoint visibility

With the ckptautomnt mount option, all Storage Checkpoints are made accessible
automatically through a directory in the root directory of the file system that has the
special name .checkpoint, which does not appear in directory listings. Inside this
directory is a directory for each Storage Checkpoint in the file system. Each of these
directories behave as a mount of the corresponding Storage Checkpoint, with the
following exceptions:
External applications, such as NFS, see the files as part of the original mount
point. Thus, no additional NFS exports are necessary.
Inode numbers exposed to applications can be made unique, depending on a

mount option.
The Storage Checkpoints are automounted internally, but the operating system
does not know about the automounting. This means that Storage Checkpoints
cannot be mounted manually, and they do not apear in the list of mounted file
systems. When Storage Checkpoints are created or deleted, entries in the Storage
Checkpoint directory are automatically updated. If a Storage Checkpoint is removed
with the -f option while a file in the Storage Checkpoint is still in use, the Storage
Checkpoint is force unmounted, and all operations on the file fail with the EIO error.
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Storage Checkpoints
If there is already a file or directory named .checkpoint in the root directory of the
file system, such as a directory created with an older version of Veritas File System
(VxFS) or when Storage Checkpoint visibility feature was disabled, the fake directory
providing access to the Storage Checkpoints is not accessible. With this feature
enabled, attempting to create a file or directory in the root directory with the name
.checkpoint fails with the EEXIST error.
Note: If an auto-mounted Storage Checkpoint is in use by an NFS mount, removing
the Storage Checkpoint might succeed even without the forced (-f) option.
Storage Checkpoints and 64-bit inode numbers

The inode number of a file is the same across Storage Checkpoints. For example,
if the file file1 exists in a file system and a Storage Checkpoint is taken of that file
system, running the stat command on file1 in the original file system and in the
Storage Checkpoint returns the same value in st_ino. The combination of st_ino
and st_dev should uniquely identify every file in a system. This is usually not a
problem because Storage Checkpoints get mounted separately, so st_dev is
different. When accessing files in a Storage Checkpoint through the Storage
Checkpoint visibility extension, st_dev is the same for all Storage Checkpoints as
well as for the original file system. This means files can no longer be identified
uniquely by st_ino and st_dev.
In general, uniquely identifying all files in a system is not necessary. However, there
can be some applications that rely on unique identification to function properly. For
example, a backup application might check if a file is hard-linked to another file by
calling stat on both and checking if st_ino and st_dev are the same. If a backup
application were told to back up two clones through the Storage Checkpoint visibility
extension at the same time, the application can erroneously deduce that two files
are the same even though the files contain different data.
By default, Symantec Storage Foundation (SF) does not make inode numbers
unique. However, you can specify the uniqueino mount option to enable the use
of unique 64-bit inode numbers. You cannot change this option during a remount.
Types of Storage Checkpoints

You can create the following types of Storage Checkpoints:
Data Storage Checkpoints
Nodata Storage Checkpoints
Removable Storage Checkpoints
Non-mountable Storage Checkpoints
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Storage Checkpoints
Data Storage Checkpoints

A data Storage Checkpoint is a complete image of the file system at the time the
Storage Checkpoint is created. This type of Storage Checkpoint contains the file
system metadata and file data blocks. You can mount, access, and write to a data
Storage Checkpoint just as you would to a file system. Data Storage Checkpoints
are useful for backup applications that require a consistent and stable image of an
active file system. Data Storage Checkpoints introduce some overhead to the
system and to the application performing the write operation. For best results, limit
the life of data Storage Checkpoints to minimize the impact on system resources.
See Showing the difference between a data and a nodata Storage Checkpoint
on page 391.
Nodata Storage Checkpoints

A nodata Storage Checkpoint only contains file system metadatano file data
blocks. As the original file system changes, the nodata Storage Checkpoint records
the location of every changed block. Nodata Storage Checkpoints use minimal
system resources and have little impact on the performance of the file system
because the data itself does not have to be copied.
In Figure 15-12, the first block originally containing A is updated.
The original data is not copied to the Storage Checkpoint, but the changed block
is marked in the Storage Checkpoint. The marker indicates which data has changed.
322

Storage Checkpoints
Figure 15-12
Primary fileset
Updates to a nodata clone

Storage Checkpoint
See Showing the difference between a data and a nodata Storage Checkpoint
on page 391.
Removable Storage Checkpoints

A removable Storage Checkpoint can self-destruct under certain conditions when
the file system runs out of space.
See Storage Checkpoint space management considerations on page 399.
During user operations such as create or mkdir, if the file system runs out of space,
removable Storage Checkpoints are deleted, even if the Storage Checkpoints are
mounted. This ensures that applications can continue without interruptions due to
lack of disk space. Non-removable Storage Checkpoints are not automatically
removed under such ENOSPC conditions. Symantec recommends that you create
only removable Storage Checkpoints. However, during certain administrative
operations, such as fsadm, even if the file system runs out of space, removable
Storage Checkpoints are not deleted.
Storage Checkpoints are created as non-removable by default. The default behavior
can be changed so that VxFS creates removable Storage Checkpoints by using
the vxtunefs -D ckpt_removable=1 command. With the default set to create
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About FileSnaps
removable Storage Checkpoints, non-removable Storage Checkpoints can be

created using fsckptadm -R create ckpt_name mount_point command.
See the vxtunefs(1M) and fsckptadm(1M) manual pages.
Non-mountable Storage Checkpoints

You can create Storage Checkpoints that cannot be mounted by using the fsckptadm
set nomount command. The nomount option can be cleared using the fsckptadm
clear nomount command.
Use non-mountable Storage Checkpoints as a security feature. This prevents other
applications from accessing and modifying the Storage Checkpoint.
See the fsckptadm(1M) manual page.
About FileSnaps
A FileSnap is an atomic space-optimized copy of a file in the same name space,
stored in the same file system. Veritas File System (VxFS) supports snapshots on
file system disk layout Version 8 and later.
FileSnaps provide an ability to snapshot objects that are smaller in granularity than
a file system or a volume. The ability to snapshot parts of a file system name space
is required for application-based or user-based management of data stored in a file
system. This is useful when a file system is shared by a set of users or applications
or the data is classified into different levels of importance in the same file system.
All regular file operations are supported on the FileSnap, and VxFS does not
distinguish the FileSnap in any way.
Properties of FileSnaps
FileSnaps provide non-root users the ability to snapshot data that they own, without
requiring administrator privileges. This enables users and applications to version,
backup, and restore their data by scheduling snapshots at appropriate points of
their application cycle. Restoring from a FileSnap is as simple as specifying a
snapshot as the source file and the original file as the destination file as the
arguments for the vxfilesnap command.
FileSnap creation locks the source file as read-only and locks the destination file
exclusively for the duration of the operation, thus creating the snapshots atomically.
The rest of the files in the file system can be accessed with no I/O pause while
FileSnap creation is in progress. Read access to the source file is also uninterrupted
while the snapshot creation is in progress. This allows for true sharing of a file
system by multiple users and applications in a non-intrusive fashion.
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About FileSnaps
The name space relationship between source file and destination file is defined by
the user-issued vxfilesnap command by specifying the destination file path. Veritas
File System (VxFS) neither differentiates between the source file and the destination
file, nor does it maintain any internal relationships between these two files. Once
the snapshot is completed, the only shared property between the source file and
destination file are the data blocks and block map shared by them.
The number of FileSnaps of a file is practically unlimited. The technical limit is the
maximum number of files supported by the VxFS file system, which is one billion
files per file set. When thousands of FileSnaps are created from the same file and
each of these snapshot files is simultaneously read and written to by thousands of
threads, FileSnaps scale very well due to the design that results in no contention
of the shared blocks when unsharing happens due to an overwrite. The performance
seen for the case of unsharing shared blocks due to an overwrite with FileSnaps
is closer to that of an allocating write than that of a traditional copy-on-write.
In disk layout Version 8, to support block or extent sharing between the files,
reference counts are tracked for each shared extent. VxFS processes reference
count updates due to sharing and unsharing of extents in a delayed fashion. Also,
an extent that is marked shared once will not go back to unshared until all the
references are gone. This is to improve the FileSnap creation performance and
performance of data extent unsharing. However, this in effect results in the shared
block statistics for the file system to be only accurate to the point of the processing
of delayed reclamation. In other words, the shared extent statistics on the file system
and a file could be stale, depending on the state of the file system.
Concurrent I/O to FileSnaps

FileSnaps design and implementation ensures that concurrent reads or writes to
different snapshots of the same file perform as if these were independent files.
Even though the extents are shared between snapshots of the same file, the sharing
has no negative impact on concurrent I/O.
Copy-on-write and FileSnaps

Veritas File System (VxFS) supports an option to do lazy copy-on-write when a
region of a file referred to by a shared extent is overwritten. A typical copy-on-write
implementation involves reading the old data, allocating a new block, copying or
writing the old data to the new block synchronously, and writing the new data to
the new block. This results in a worst case possibility of one or more allocating
transactions, followed by a read, followed by a synchronous write and another write
that conforms to the I/O behavior requested for the overwrite. This sequence makes
typical copy-on-write a costly operation. The VxFS lazy copy-on-write implementation
does not copy the old data to the newly allocated block and hence does not have
325

About FileSnaps
to read the old data either, as long as the new data covers the entire block. This
behavior combined with delayed processing of shared extent accounting makes
the lazy copy-on-write complete in times comparable to that of an allocating write.
However, in the event of a server crash, when the server has not flushed the new
data to the newly allocated blocks, the data seen on the overwritten region would
be similar to what you would find in the case of an allocating write where the server
has crashed before the data is flushed. This is not the default behavior and with
the default behavior the data that you find in the overwritten region will be either
the new data or the old data.
Reading from FileSnaps

For regular read requests, Veritas File System (VxFS) only caches a single copy
of a data page in the page cache for a given shared data block, even though the
shared data block could be accessed from any of the FileSnaps or the source file.
Once the shared data page is cached, any subsequent requests via any of the
FileSnaps or the source file is serviced from the page cache. This eliminates
duplicate read requests to the disk, which results in lower I/O load on the array.
This also reduces the page cache duplication, which results in efficient usage of
system page cache with very little cache churning when thousands of FileSnaps
are accessed.
Block map fragmentation and FileSnaps

The block map of the source file is shared by the snapshot file. When data is
overwritten on a previously shared region, the block map of the file to which the
write happens gets changed. In cases where the shared data extent of a source
file is larger than the size of the overwrite request to the same region, the block
map of the file that is written to becomes more fragmented.
Backup and FileSnaps

A full backup of a VxFS file system that has shared blocks may require as much
space in the target as the number of total logical references to the physical blocks
in the source file system. For example, if you have a 20 GB file from which one
thousand FileSnaps were created, the total number of logical block references is
approximately 20 TB. While the VxFS file system only requires a little over 20 GB
of physical blocks to store the file and the file's one thousand snapshots, the file
system requires over 20 TB of space on the backup target to back up the file system,
assuming the backup target does not have deduplication support.
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A snapshot file system is an exact image of a VxFS file system, referred to as the
snapped file system, that provides a mechanism for making backups. The snapshot
is a consistent view of the file system snapped" at the point in time the snapshot
is made. You can select files to back up from the snapshot using a standard utility
such as cpio or cp, or back up the entire file system image using the vxdump or
fscat utilities.
You use the mount command to create a snapshot file system; the mkfs command
is not required. A snapshot file system is always read-only. A snapshot file system
exists only as long as the snapped file system is mounted, and the snapshot file
system ceases to exist when unmounted. A snapped file system cannot be
unmounted until all of its snapshots are unmounted. Although it is possible to have
multiple snapshots of a file system made at different times, it is not possible to make
a snapshot of a snapshot.
Note: A snapshot file system ceases to exist when unmounted. If mounted again,
it is actually a fresh snapshot of the snapped file system. A snapshot file system
must be unmounted before its dependent snapped file system can be unmounted.
Neither the fuser command nor the mount command will indicate that a snapped
file system cannot be unmounted because a snapshot of it exists.
On cluster file systems, snapshots can be created on any node in the cluster, and
backup operations can be performed from that node. The snapshot of a cluster file
system is accessible only on the node where it is created, that is, the snapshot file
system itself cannot be cluster mounted.
See the Symantec Storage Foundation Cluster File System High Availability
Administrator's Guide.
How a snapshot file system works

A snapshot file system is created by mounting an empty disk slice as a snapshot
of a currently mounted file system. The bitmap, blockmap and super-block are
initialized and then the currently mounted file system is frozen. After the file system
to be snapped is frozen, the snapshot is enabled and mounted and the snapped
file system is thawed. The snapshot appears as an exact image of the snapped file
system at the time the snapshot was made.
See Freezing and thawing a file system on page 294.
Initially, the snapshot file system satisfies read requests by finding the data on the
snapped file system and returning it to the requesting process. When an inode
327

update or a write changes the data in block n of the snapped file system, the old
data is first read and copied to the snapshot before the snapped file system is
updated. The bitmap entry for block n is changed from 0 to 1, indicating that the
data for block n can be found on the snapshot file system. The blockmap entry for
block n is changed from 0 to the block number on the snapshot file system containing
the old data.
A subsequent read request for block n on the snapshot file system will be satisfied
by checking the bitmap entry for block n and reading the data from the indicated
block on the snapshot file system, instead of from block n on the snapped file
system. This technique is called copy-on-write. Subsequent writes to block n on
the snapped file system do not result in additional copies to the snapshot file system,
since the old data only needs to be saved once.
All updates to the snapped file system for inodes, directories, data in files, extent
maps, and so forth, are handled in this fashion so that the snapshot can present a
consistent view of all file system structures on the snapped file system for the time
when the snapshot was created. As data blocks are changed on the snapped file
system, the snapshot gradually fills with data copied from the snapped file system.
The amount of disk space required for the snapshot depends on the rate of change
of the snapped file system and the amount of time the snapshot is maintained. In
the worst case, the snapped file system is completely full and every file is removed
and rewritten. The snapshot file system would need enough blocks to hold a copy
of every block on the snapped file system, plus additional blocks for the data
structures that make up the snapshot file system. This is approximately 101 percent
of the size of the snapped file system. Normally, most file systems do not undergo
changes at this extreme rate. During periods of low activity, the snapshot should
only require two to six percent of the blocks of the snapped file system. During
periods of high activity, the snapshot might require 15 percent of the blocks of the
snapped file system. These percentages tend to be lower for larger file systems
and higher for smaller ones.
Warning: If a snapshot file system runs out of space for changed data blocks, it is
disabled and all further attempts to access it fails. This does not affect the snapped
file system.
328
Chapter
16
Administering volume
snapshots
About volume snapshots
How traditional third-mirror break-off snapshots work
How full-sized instant snapshots work
Linked break-off snapshot volumes
Cascaded snapshots
Creating multiple snapshots
Restoring the original volume from a snapshot
Creating instant snapshots
Creating traditional third-mirror break-off snapshots
Adding a version 0 DCO and DCO volume
About volume snapshots

VxVM can take an image of a volume at a given point in time. This image is called
a volume snapshot.
See Volume-level snapshots on page 312.
You can also take a snapshot of a volume set.
Snapshot creation using the vxsnap command is the preferred mechanism for
implementing point-in-time copy solutions in VxVM. Support for traditional third-mirror
Administering volume snapshots

snapshots that are created using the vxassist command may be removed in a
future release.
To recover from the failure of instant snapshot commands, see the Symantec
Storage Foundation and High Availability Solutions Troubleshooting Guide.

The recommended approach to performing volume backup from the command line,
or from a script, is to use the vxsnap command. The vxassist snapstart,
snapwait, and snapshot commands are supported for backward compatibility.
The use of the vxassist command to administer traditional (third-mirror break-off)
snapshots is not supported for volumes that are prepared for instant snapshot
creation. Use the vxsnap command instead.
Figure 16-1 shows the traditional third-mirror break-off volume snapshot model that
is supported by the vxassist command.
Third-mirror snapshot creation and usage
Figure 16-1
Start
vxassist
snapstart
Original volume
vxassist
snapshot
Snapshot mirror
Backup
cycle
Original volume
Snapshot volume
Refresh on snapback
vxsassist
snapback
Independent volume
vxsassist snapclear
Back up to disk, tape or
other media, or use to
replicate database or file
The vxassist snapstart command creates a mirror to be used for the snapshot,
and attaches it to the volume as a snapshot mirror. As is usual when creating a
mirror, the process of copying the volumes contents to the new snapshot plexes
can take some time to complete. (The vxassist snapabort command cancels this
operation and removes the snapshot mirror.)
When the attachment is complete, the vxassist snapshot command is used to
create a new snapshot volume by taking one or more snapshot mirrors to use as
330

its data plexes. The snapshot volume contains a copy of the original volumes data
at the time that you took the snapshot. If more than one snapshot mirror is used,
the snapshot volume is itself mirrored.
The command, vxassist snapback, can be used to return snapshot plexes to the
original volume from which they were snapped, and to resynchronize the data in
the snapshot mirrors from the data in the original volume. This enables you to
refresh the data in a snapshot after you use it to make a backup. You can use a
variation of the same command to restore the contents of the original volume from
a snapshot previously taken.
The FastResync feature minimizes the time and I/O needed to resynchronize the
data in the snapshot. If FastResync is not enabled, a full resynchronization of the
data is required.
Finally, you can use the vxassist snapclear command to break the association
between the original volume and the snapshot volume. Because the snapshot
relationship is broken, no change tracking occurs. Use this command if you do not
need to reuse the snapshot volume to create a new point-in-time copy.

Full-sized instant snapshots are a variation on the third-mirror volume snapshot
model that make a snapshot volume available for I/O access as soon as the
snapshot plexes have been created.
Figure 16-2 shows the full-sized instant volume snapshot model.
Full-sized instant snapshot creation and usage in a backup cycle
Figure 16-2
Start
vxsnap make
vxsnap refresh
vxsnap prepare
Original volume
Snapshot volume
vxsnap reattach
Back up to disk, tape or other media
The snapshot volume can also be used to create a replica
database or file system when synchronization is complete.
Backup
cycle
vxsnap dis
or
vxsnap split
Independent volume
To create an instant snapshot, use the vxsnap make command. This command can
either be applied to a suitably prepared empty volume that is to be used as the
331

snapshot volume, or it can be used to break off one or more synchronized plexes
from the original volume.
You can make a backup of a full-sized instant snapshot, instantly refresh its contents
from the original volume, or attach its plexes to the original volume, without
completely synchronizing the snapshot plexes from the original volume.
VxVM uses a copy-on-write mechanism to ensure that the snapshot volume
preserves the contents of the original volume at the time that the snapshot is taken.
Any time that the original contents of the volume are about to be overwritten, the
original data in the volume is moved to the snapshot volume before the write
proceeds. As time goes by, and the contents of the volume are updated, its original
contents are gradually relocated to the snapshot volume.
If a read request comes to the snapshot volume, yet the data resides on the original
volume (because it has not yet been changed), VxVM automatically and
transparently reads the data from the original volume.
If desired, you can perform either a background (non-blocking) or foreground
(blocking) synchronization of the snapshot volume. This is useful if you intend to
move the snapshot volume into a separate disk group for off-host processing, or
you want to turn the snapshot volume into an independent volume.
The vxsnap refresh command allows you to update the data in a snapshot, for
example, before taking a backup.
The command vxsnap reattach attaches snapshot plexes to the original volume,
and resynchronizes the data in these plexes from the original volume. Alternatively,
you can use the vxsnap restore command to restore the contents of the original
volume from a snapshot that you took at an earlier point in time. You can also
choose whether or not to keep the snapshot volume after restoration of the original
volume is complete.
By default, the FastResync feature of VxVM is used to minimize the time and I/O
needed to resynchronize the data in the snapshot mirror. FastResync must be
enabled to create instant snapshots.
See Creating and managing full-sized instant snapshots on page 349.
An empty volume must be prepared for use by full-sized instant snapshots and
linked break-off snapshots.
See Creating a volume for use as a full-sized instant or linked break-off snapshot
on page 344.
332


A variant of third-mirror break-off snapshots are linked break-off snapshots, which
use the vxsnap addmir command to link a specially prepared volume with the data
volume. The volume that is used for the snapshot is prepared in the same way as
for full-sized instant snapshots. However, unlike full-sized instant snapshots, this
volume can be set up in a different disk group from the data volume. This makes
linked break-off snapshots especially suitable for recurring off-host processing
applications as it avoids the disk group split/join administrative step. As with
third-mirror break-off snapshots, you must wait for the contents of the snapshot
volume to be synchronized with the data volume before you can use the vxsnap
make command to take the snapshot.
When a link is created between a volume and the mirror that will become the
snapshot, separate link objects (similar to snap objects) are associated with the
volume and with its mirror. The link object for the original volume points to the mirror
volume, and the link object for the mirror volume points to the original volume. All
I/O is directed to both the original volume and its mirror, and a synchronization of
the mirror from the data in the original volume is started.
You can use the vxprint command to display the state of link objects, which appear
as type ln. Link objects can have the following states:
ACTIVE
The mirror volume has been fully synchronized from the original volume.
The vxsnap make command can be run to create a snapshot.
ATTACHING
Synchronization of the mirror volume is in progress. The vxsnap make

command cannot be used to create a snapshot until the state changes
to ACTIVE. The vxsnap snapwait command can be used to wait for
the synchronization to complete.
BROKEN
The mirror volume has been detached from the original volume because
of an I/O error or an unsuccessful attempt to grow the mirror volume.
The vxrecover command can be used to recover the mirror volume in
the same way as for a DISABLED volume.
If you resize (grow or shrink) a volume, all its ACTIVE linked mirror volumes are also
resized at the same time. The volume and its mirrors can be in the same disk group
or in different disk groups. If the operation is successful, the volume and its mirrors
will have the same size.
If a volume has been grown, a resynchronization of the grown regions in its linked
mirror volumes is started, and the links remain in the ATTACHING state until
resynchronization is complete. The vxsnap snapwait command can be used to
wait for the state to become ACTIVE.
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Cascaded snapshots
When you use the vxsnap make command to create the snapshot volume, this
removes the link, and establishes a snapshot relationship between the snapshot
volume and the original volume.
The vxsnap reattach operation re-establishes the link relationship between the
two volumes, and starts a resynchronization of the mirror volume.
See Creating and managing linked break-off snapshot volumes on page 354.
An empty volume must be prepared for use by linked break-off snapshots.
on page 344.
Cascaded snapshots
Figure 16-3 shows a snapshot hierarchy, known as a snapshot cascade, that can
improve write performance for some applications.
Figure 16-3
Snapshot cascade
Most recent
snapshot
Original volume
V
Snapshot volume
Sn
Oldest
snapshot
Snapshot volume
Sn-1
Snapshot volume
S1
Instead of having several independent snapshots of the volume, it is more efficient

to make the older snapshots into children of the latest snapshot.
A snapshot cascade is most likely to be used for regular online backup of a volume
where space-optimized snapshots are written to disk but not to tape.
A snapshot cascade improves write performance over the alternative of several
independent snapshots, and also requires less disk space if the snapshots are
space-optimized. Only the latest snapshot needs to be updated when the original
volume is updated. If and when required, the older snapshots can obtain the changed
data from the most recent snapshot.
A snapshot may be added to a cascade by specifying the infrontof attribute to
the vxsnap make command when the second and subsequent snapshots in the
cascade are created. Changes to blocks in the original volume are only written to
the most recently created snapshot volume in the cascade. If an attempt is made
to read data from an older snapshot that does not exist in that snapshot, it is obtained
by searching recursively up the hierarchy of more recent snapshots.
The following points determine whether it is appropriate to use a snapshot cascade:
334

Cascaded snapshots
Deletion of a snapshot in the cascade takes time to copy the snapshots data
to the next snapshot in the cascade.
The reliability of a snapshot in the cascade depends on all the newer snapshots
in the chain. Thus the oldest snapshot in the cascade is the most vulnerable.
Reading from a snapshot in the cascade may require data to be fetched from
one or more other snapshots in the cascade.
For these reasons, it is recommended that you do not attempt to use a snapshot
cascade with applications that need to remove or split snapshots from the cascade.
In such cases, it may be more appropriate to create a snapshot of a snapshot as
described in the following section.
See Adding a snapshot to a cascaded snapshot hierarchy on page 360.
Note: Only unsynchronized full-sized or space-optimized instant snapshots are
usually cascaded. It is of little utility to create cascaded snapshots if the infrontof
snapshot volume is fully synchronized (as, for example, with break-off type
snapshots).
Creating a snapshot of a snapshot

Figure 16-4 creation of a snapshot of an existing snapshot.
Creating a snapshot of a snapshot
Figure 16-4
vxsnap make source=V
Original volume
V
vxsnap make source=S1
Snapshot volume
S1
Snapshot volume
S2
Even though the arrangement of the snapshots in this figure appears similar to a
snapshot cascade, the relationship between the snapshots is not recursive. When
reading from the snapshot S2, data is obtained directly from the original volume, V,
if it does not exist in S1 itself.
See Figure 16-3 on page 334.
Such an arrangement may be useful if the snapshot volume, S1, is critical to the
operation. For example, S1 could be used as a stable copy of the original volume,
V. The additional snapshot volume, S2, can be used to restore the original volume
if that volume becomes corrupted. For a database, you might need to replay a redo
log on S2 before you could use it to restore V.
335

Cascaded snapshots
Figure 16-5 shows the sequence of steps that would be required to restore a
database.
Figure 16-5
Using a snapshot of a snapshot to restore a database
1 Create instant snapshot S1 of volume V
Original volume
V
Snapshot volume of V:
S1
2 Create instant snapshot S2 of S1
Original volume
V
vxsnap make source=S1
S1
Snapshot volume of S1:

S2
3 After contents of V have gone bad, apply the database to redo logs to S2
Apply redo logs
Original volume
V
S1

S2
Restore contents of V instantly from snapshot S2 and keep S1 as a

stable copy
vxsnap restore V source=S2
Original volume
V
S1

S2
If you have configured snapshots in this way, you may wish to make one or more
of the snapshots into independent volumes. There are two vxsnap commands that
you can use to do this:
vxsnap dis dissociates a snapshot and turns it into an independent volume.
The snapshot to be dissociated must have been fully synchronized from its
parent. If a snapshot volume has a child snapshot volume, the child must also
have been fully synchronized. If the command succeeds, the child snapshot
becomes a snapshot of the original volume.
Figure 16-6 shows the effect of applying the vxsnap dis command to snapshots
with and without dependent snapshots.
336

Figure 16-6
Dissociating a snapshot volume
vxsnap dis is applied to snapshot S2, which has no snapshots of its own
Original volume
V
S1

S2
vxsnap dis S2
Original volume
V
S1
Volume
S2
S1 remains owned by V
S2 is independent
vxsnap dis is applied to snapshot S1, which has one snapshot S2

Original volume
V
S1

S2
vxsnap dis S1
Original volume
V
Volume
S1
S2
S1 is independent
S2 is adopted by V
vxsnap split dissociates a snapshot and its dependent snapshots from its
parent volume. The snapshot that is to be split must have been fully synchronized
from its parent volume.
Figure 16-7 shows the operation of the vxsnap split command.
Figure 16-7
Original volume
V
Splitting snapshots
S1

S2
vxsnap split S1
Original volume
V
Volume
S1
S1 is independent

S2
S2 continues to be a
snapshot of S1

To make it easier to create snapshots of several volumes at the same time, both
the vxsnap make and vxassist snapshot commands accept more than one volume
name as their argument.
337

For traditional snapshots, you can create snapshots of all the volumes in a single
disk group by specifying the option -o allvols to the vxassist snapshot
command.
By default, each replica volume is named SNAPnumber-volume, where number is
a unique serial number, and volume is the name of the volume for which a snapshot
is being taken. This default can be overridden by using the option -o name=pattern.
You can create a snapshot of all volumes that form a logical group; for example,
all the volumes that conform to a database instance.

For traditional snapshots, the snapshot plex is resynchronized from the data in the
original volume during a vxassist snapback operation.
Figure 16-8 shows an alternative where the snapshot overwrites the original volume.
Figure 16-8
Resynchronizing an original volume from a snapshot
Refresh on snapback
Original volume
Snapshot mirror
Snapshot volume
-o resyncfromreplica snapback
Specifying the option -o resyncfromreplica to vxassist resynchronizes the

original volume from the data in the snapshot.
Warning: The original volume must not be in use during a snapback operation that
specifies the option -o resyncfromreplica to resynchronize the volume from a
snapshot. Stop any application, such as a database, and unmount any file systems
that are configured to use the volume.
For instant snapshots, the vxsnap restore command may be used to restore the
contents of the original volume from an instant snapshot or from a volume derived
from an instant snapshot. The volume that is used to restore the original volume
can either be a true backup of the contents of the original volume at some point in
time, or it may have been modified in some way (for example, by applying a database
338

log replay or by running a file system checking utility such as fsck). All
synchronization of the contents of this backup must have been completed before
the original volume can be restored from it. The original volume is immediately
available for use while its contents are being restored.
See Restoring a volume from an instant space-optimized snapshot on page 363.

Note: You need a Storage Foundation Enterprise license to use this feature.
VxVM allows you to make instant snapshots by using the vxsnap command.
You can also take instant snapshots of RAID-5 volumes that have been converted
to a special layered volume layout by the addition of a DCO and DCO volume.
A plex in a full-sized instant snapshot requires as much space as the original volume.
If you instead make a space-optimized instant snapshot of a volume, this only
requires enough storage to record the original contents of the parent volume as
they are changed during the life of the snapshot.
The recommended approach to perform volume backup from the command line,
or from a script, is to use the vxsnap command. The vxsnap prepare and make
tasks allow you to back up volumes online with minimal disruption to users.
vxsnap prepare creates a DCO and DCO volume and associates this with the
original volume. It also enables Persistent FastResync.

vxsnap make creates an instant snapshot that is immediately available for making
a backup. After the snapshot has been taken, read requests for data in the instant
snapshot volume are satisfied by reading either from a non-updated region of the
original volume, or from the copy of the original contents of an updated region that
have been recorded by the snapshot.
Note: Synchronization of a full-sized instant snapshot from the original volume is
enabled by default. If you specify the syncing=no attribute to vxsnap make, this
disables synchronization, and the contents of the instant snapshot are unlikely ever
to become fully synchronized with the contents of the original volume at the point
in time that the snapshot was taken. In such a case, the snapshot cannot be used
for off-host processing, nor can it become an independent volume.
You can immediately retake a full-sized or space-optimized instant snapshot at any
time by using the vxsnap refresh command. If a fully synchronized instant snapshot
is required, the new resynchronization must first complete.
339

To create instant snapshots of volume sets, use volume set names in place of
volume names in the vxsnap command.
See Creating instant snapshots of volume sets on page 357.
When using the vxsnap prepare or vxassist make commands to make a volume
ready for instant snapshot operations, if the specified region size exceeds half the
value of the tunable voliomem_maxpool_sz , the operation succeeds but gives a
warning such as the following (for a system where voliomem_maxpool_sz is set to
12MB):
VxVM vxassist WARNING V-5-1-0 Specified regionsize is
larger than the limit on the system
(voliomem_maxpool_sz/2=6144k).
If this message is displayed, vxsnap make, refresh and restore operations on

such volumes fail as they might potentially hang the system. Such volumes can be
used only for break-off snapshot operations using the reattach and make operations.
To make the volumes usable for instant snapshot operations, use vxsnap unprepare
on the volume, and then use vxsnap prepare to re-prepare the volume with a
region size that is less than half the size of voliomem_maxpool_sz (in this example,
1MB):
# vxsnap -g mydg -f unprepare vol1
# vxsnap -g mydg prepare vol1 regionsize=1M
See Creating instant snapshots of volume sets on page 357.

See Creating and managing space-optimized instant snapshots on page 346.
See Creating and managing full-sized instant snapshots on page 349.
See Creating and managing third-mirror break-off snapshots on page 351.
Adding an instant snap DCO and DCO volume

To prepare a volume for instant snapshots, an instant snap data change object
(DCO) and DCO volume must be associated with that volume. This procedure also
enables Persistent FastResync on the volume.
The following procedure is required only if the volume does not have an instant
snap DCO volume.
By default, volumes on thin provisioning LUNs are created with an instant snap
DCO volume.
340

To add an instant snap DCO and DCO volume
Verify that the volume has an instant snap data change object (DCO) and DCO
volume, and that FastResync is enabled on the volume:
# vxprint -g volumedg -F%instant volume
# vxprint -g volumedg -F%fastresync volume
If both commands return a value of on, skip to step 3. Otherwise continue with
step 2.
To prepare a volume for instant snapshots, use the following command:

# vxsnap [-g diskgroup] prepare volume [regionsize=size] \
[ndcomirs=number] [alloc=storage_attributes]
Run the vxsnap prepare command on a volume only if it does not have an
instant snap DCO volume.
For example, to prepare the volume, myvol, in the disk group, mydg, use the
following command:
# vxsnap -g mydg prepare myvol regionsize=128k ndcomirs=2 \
alloc=mydg10,mydg11
This example creates a DCO object and redundant DCO volume with two
plexes located on disks mydg10 and mydg11, and associates them with myvol.
The region size is also increased to 128KB from the default size of 64KB. The
region size must be a power of 2, and be greater than or equal to 16KB. A
smaller value requires more disk space for the change maps, but the finer
granularity provides faster resynchronization.
If you need several space-optimized instant snapshots for the volumes in a

disk group, you may find it convenient to create a single shared cache object
in the disk group rather than a separate cache object for each snapshot.
See Creating a shared cache object on page 342.
For full-sized instant snapshots and linked break-off snapshots, you must
prepare a volume that is to be used as the snapshot volume. This volume must
be the same size as the data volume for which the snapshot is being created,
and it must also have the same region size.
See Creating a volume for use as a full-sized instant or linked break-off
snapshot on page 344.
341

Creating a shared cache object

If you need several space-optimized instant snapshots for the volumes in a disk
group, you can create a single shared cache object in the disk group rather than a
separate cache object for each snapshot.
To create a shared cache object
Decide on the following characteristics that you want to allocate to the cache
volume that underlies the cache object:
The cache volume size should be sufficient to record changes to the parent
volumes during the interval between snapshot refreshes. A suggested value
is 10% of the total size of the parent volumes for a refresh interval of 24
hours.
The cache volume can be mirrored for redundancy.
If the cache volume is mirrored, space is required on at least as many disks

as it has mirrors. These disks should not be shared with the disks used for
the parent volumes. The disks should not be shared with disks used by
critical volumes to avoid impacting I/O performance for critical volumes, or
hindering disk group split and join operations.
Having decided on its characteristics, use the vxassist command to create

the cache volume. The following example creates a mirrored cache volume,
cachevol, with size 1GB in the disk group, mydg, on the disks mydg16 and
mydg17:
# vxassist -g mydg make cachevol 1g layout=mirror \
init=active mydg16 mydg17
The attribute init=active makes the cache volume immediately available for
use.
342

Use the vxmake cache command to create a cache object on top of the cache
volume that you created in the previous step:
# vxmake [-g diskgroup] cache cache_object \
cachevolname=volume [regionsize=size] [autogrow=on] \
[highwatermark=hwmk] [autogrowby=agbvalue] \
[maxautogrow=maxagbvalue]]
If the region size, regionsize, is specified, it must be a power of 2, and be

greater than or equal to 16KB (16k). If not specified, the region size of the
cache is set to 64KB.
All space-optimized snapshots that share the cache must have a region size
that is equal to or an integer multiple of the region size set on the cache.
Snapshot creation also fails if the original volumes region size is smaller than
the caches region size.
If the region size of a space-optimized snapshot differs from the region size of
the cache, this can degrade the systems performance compared to the case
where the region sizes are the same.
To prevent the cache from growing automatically, specify autogrow=off. By
default, autogrow=on.
In the following example, the cache object, cobjmydg, is created over the cache
volume, cachevol, the region size of the cache is set to 32KB, and the autogrow
feature is enabled:
# vxmake -g mydg cache cobjmydg cachevolname=cachevol \
regionsize=32k autogrow=on
Enable the cache object using the following command:

# vxcache [-g diskgroup] start cache_object
For example to start the cache object, cobjmydg:

# vxcache -g mydg start cobjmydg
See Removing a cache on page 371.
343

Creating a volume for use as a full-sized instant or linked

break-off snapshot
To create an empty volume for use by a full-sized instant snapshot or a linked
break-off snapshot
Use the vxprint command on the original volume to find the required size for
the snapshot volume.
# LEN=`vxprint [-g diskgroup] -F%len volume`
The command as shown assumes a Bourne-type shell such as sh, ksh or bash.
You may need to modify the command for other shells such as csh or tcsh.
Use the vxprint command on the original volume to discover the name of its
DCO:
# DCONAME=`vxprint [-g diskgroup] -F%dco_name volume`
344

Use the vxprint command on the DCO to discover its region size (in blocks):
# RSZ=`vxprint [-g diskgroup] -F%regionsz $DCONAME`
Use the vxassist command to create a volume, snapvol, of the required size
and redundancy, together with an instant snap DCO volume with the correct
region size:
# vxassist [-g diskgroup] make snapvol $LEN \
[layout=mirror nmirror=number] logtype=dco drl=off \
dcoversion=20 [ndcomirror=number] regionsz=$RSZ \
init=active [storage_attributes]
Storage attributes give you control over the devices, including disks and
controllers, which vxassist uses to configure a volume.
See Creating a volume on specific disks on page 146.
Specify the same number of DCO mirrors (ndcomirror) as the number of
mirrors in the volume (nmirror). The init=active attribute makes the volume
available immediately. You can use storage attributes to specify which disks
should be used for the volume.
As an alternative to creating the snapshot volume and its DCO volume in a
single step, you can first create the volume, and then prepare it for instant
snapshot operations as shown here:
# vxassist [-g diskgroup] make snapvol $LEN \
[layout=mirror nmirror=number] init=active \
[storage_attributes]
# vxsnap [-g diskgroup] prepare snapvol [ndcomirs=number] \
regionsize=$RSZ [storage_attributes]
Upgrading the instant snap Data Change Objects (DCOs) and

DCO volumes for a VxVM volume
Instant snap DCOs, formerly known as version 20 DCOs, support the creation of
instant snapshots for VxVM volumes. Upgrade the instant snap DCOS and DCO
volumes to ensure compatability with the latest version of VxVM. The upgrade
operation can be performed while the volumes are online.
The upgrade operation does not support upgrade from version 0 DCOs.
345

To upgrade the instant snap DCOs for all volumes in the disk group
Make sure that the disk group is at least version 180. To upgrade the disk
group:
# vxdg upgrade diskgroup
Use the following command to upgrade the instant snap DCOs for all volumes
in the disk group:
# vxsnap -g diskgroup upgradeall
Where:diskgroup is the disk group that contains the volumes to be upgraded.

For additional options to the upgradeall operation, see the vxsnap(1M) manual
page.
To upgrade the instant snap DCOs for specified volumes
Make sure that the disk group is at least version 180. To upgrade the disk
group:
To upgrade the DCOs, specify one or more volumes or volume sets to the
following command:
# vxsnap [-g diskgroup] upgrade
[volume1|volset1][volume2|volset2...]
Where:diskgroup is the disk group that contains the volumes to be upgraded.

For additional options to the upgrade operation, see the vxsnap(1M) manual
page.
Creating and managing space-optimized instant snapshots

Space-optimized instant snapshots are not suitable for write-intensive volumes
(such as for database redo logs) because the copy-on-write mechanism may
degrade performance.
To split the volume and snapshot into separate disk groups (for example, to perform
off-host processing), you must use a fully synchronized full-sized instant, third-mirror
break-off or linked break-off snapshot (which do not require a cache object). You
cannot use a space-optimized instant snapshot.
Creation of space-optimized snapshots that use a shared cache fails if the region
size specified for the volume is smaller than the region size set on the cache.
346

If the region size of a space-optimized snapshot differs from the region size of the
cache, this can degrade the systems performance compared to the case where
the region sizes are the same.
See Creating a shared cache object on page 342.
The attributes for a snapshot are specified as a tuple to the vxsnap make command.
This command accepts multiple tuples. One tuple is required for each snapshot
that is being created. Each element of a tuple is separated from the next by a slash
character (/). Tuples are separated by white space.
To create and manage a space-optimized instant snapshot
Use the vxsnap make command to create a space-optimized instant snapshot.

This snapshot can be created by using an existing cache object in the disk
group, or a new cache object can be created.
To create a space-optimized instant snapshot, snapvol, that uses a named

shared cache object:
# vxsnap [-g diskgroup] make source=vol/newvol=snapvol\
/cache=cacheobject [alloc=storage_attributes]
For example, to create the space-optimized instant snapshot, snap3myvol,

of the volume, myvol, in the disk group, mydg, on the disk mydg14, and which
uses the shared cache object, cobjmydg, use the following command:
# vxsnap -g mydg make source=myvol/newvol=snap3myvol\
/cache=cobjmydg alloc=mydg14
The DCO is created on the specified allocation.
To create a space-optimized instant snapshot, snapvol, and also create a

cache object for it to use:
# vxsnap [-g diskgroup] make source=vol/newvol=snapvol\
[/cachesize=size][/autogrow=yes][/ncachemirror=number]\
[alloc=storage_attributes]
The cachesize attribute determines the size of the cache relative to the
size of the volume. The autogrow attribute determines whether VxVM will
automatically enlarge the cache if it is in danger of overflowing. By default,
autogrow=on and the cache is automatically grown.
If autogrow is enabled, but the cache cannot be grown, VxVM disables the
oldest and largest snapshot that is using the same cache, and releases its
cache space for use.
347

The ncachemirror attribute specifies the number of mirrors to create in the

cache volume. For backup purposes, the default value of 1 should be
sufficient.
For example, to create the space-optimized instant snapshot, snap4myvol,
of the volume, myvol, in the disk group, mydg, on the disk mydg15, and which
uses a newly allocated cache object that is 1GB in size, but which can
automatically grow in size, use the following command:
# vxsnap -g mydg make source=myvol/new=snap4myvol\
/cachesize=1g/autogrow=yes alloc=mydg15
If a cache is created implicitly by specifying cachesize, and ncachemirror

is specified to be greater than 1, a DCO is attached to the cache volume
to enable dirty region logging (DRL). DRL allows fast recovery of the cache
backing store after a system crash. The DCO is allocated on the same disks
as those that are occupied by the DCO of the source volume. This is done
to allow the cache and the source volume to remain in the same disk group
for disk group move, split and join operations.
Clean the temporary volume's contents using an appropriate utility such as

fsck for non-VxVM file systems and log replay for databases. Because VxVM
calls VxFS and places VxFS file systems in a constant state immediately before
taking a snapshot, it is not usually necessary to run fsck on a VxFS file system
on the temporary volume. If a VxFS file system contains a database, it will still
be necessary to perform database log replay.
To backup the data in the snapshot, use an appropriate utility or operating

system command to copy the contents of the snapshot to tape, or to some
other backup medium.
You now have the following options:
Refresh the contents of the snapshot. This creates a new point-in-time

image of the original volume ready for another backup. If synchronization
was already in progress on the snapshot, this operation may result in large
portions of the snapshot having to be resynchronized.
See Refreshing an instant space-optimized snapshot on page 361.
Restore the contents of the original volume from the snapshot volume. The
space-optimized instant snapshot remains intact at the end of the operation.
See Restoring a volume from an instant space-optimized snapshot
on page 363.
Destroy the snapshot.

See Removing an instant snapshot on page 364.
348

Creating and managing full-sized instant snapshots

Full-sized instant snapshots are not suitable for write-intensive volumes (such as
for database redo logs) because the copy-on-write mechanism may degrade the
performance of the volume.
For full-sized instant snapshots, you must prepare a volume that is to be used as
the snapshot volume. This must be the same size as the volume for which the
snapshot is being created, and it must also have the same region size.
on page 344.
To create and manage a full-sized instant snapshot
To create a full-sized instant snapshot, use the following form of the vxsnap
make command:
# vxsnap [-g diskgroup] make source=volume/snapvol=snapvol\
[/snapdg=snapdiskgroup] [/syncing=off]
The command specifies the volume, snapvol, that you prepared earlier.
For example, to use the prepared volume, snap1myvol, as the snapshot for
the volume, myvol, in the disk group, mydg, use the following command:
# vxsnap -g mydg make source=myvol/snapvol=snap1myvol
For full-sized instant snapshots that are created from an empty volume,
background synchronization is enabled by default (equivalent to specifying the
syncing=on attribute). To move a snapshot into a separate disk group, or to
turn it into an independent volume, you must wait for its contents to be
synchronized with those of its parent volume.
You can use the vxsnap syncwait command to wait for the synchronization
of the snapshot volume to be completed, as shown here:
# vxsnap [-g diskgroup] syncwait snapvol
For example, you would use the following command to wait for synchronization
to finish on the snapshot volume, snap2myvol:
# vxsnap -g mydg syncwait snap2myvol
349

This command exits (with a return code of zero) when synchronization of the
snapshot volume is complete. The snapshot volume may then be moved to
another disk group or turned into an independent volume.
See Controlling instant snapshot synchronization on page 367.
If required, you can use the following command to test if the synchronization
of a volume is complete:
# vxprint [-g diskgroup] -F%incomplete snapvol
This command returns the value off if synchronization of the volume, snapvol,
is complete; otherwise, it returns the value on.
You can also use the vxsnap print command to check on the progress of
synchronization.
See Displaying snapshot information on page 379.
If you do not want to move the snapshot into a separate disk group, or to turn
it into an independent volume, specify the syncing=off attribute. This avoids
unnecessary system overhead. For example, to turn off synchronization when
creating the snapshot of the volume, myvol, you would use the following form
of the vxsnap make command:
# vxsnap -g mydg make source=myvol/snapvol=snap1myvol\
/syncing=off



Reattach some or all of the plexes of the snapshot volume with the original
volume.
350

See Reattaching an instant full-sized or plex break-off snapshot

on page 361.
Restore the contents of the original volume from the snapshot volume. You
can choose whether none, a subset, or all of the plexes of the snapshot
volume are returned to the original volume as a result of the operation.
on page 363.
Dissociate the snapshot volume entirely from the original volume. This may
be useful if you want to use the copy for other purposes such as testing or
report generation. If desired, you can delete the dissociated volume.
See Dissociating an instant snapshot on page 363.
If the snapshot is part of a snapshot hierarchy, you can also choose to split
this hierarchy from its parent volumes.
See Splitting an instant snapshot hierarchy on page 364.
Creating and managing third-mirror break-off snapshots

Break-off snapshots are suitable for write-intensive volumes, such as database
redo logs.
To turn one or more existing plexes in a volume into a break-off instant snapshot
volume, the volume must be a non-layered volume with a mirror or mirror-stripe
layout, or a RAID-5 volume that you have converted to a special layered volume
and then mirrored. The plexes in a volume with a stripe-mirror layout are mirrored
at the subvolume level, and cannot be broken off.
351

To create and manage a third-mirror break-off snapshot
To create the snapshot, you can either take some of the existing ACTIVE plexes
in the volume, or you can use the following command to add new snapshot
mirrors to the volume:
# vxsnap [-b] [-g diskgroup] addmir volume [nmirror=N] \
By default, the vxsnap addmir command adds one snapshot mirror to a volume
unless you use the nmirror attribute to specify a different number of mirrors.
The mirrors remain in the SNAPATT state until they are fully synchronized. The
-b option can be used to perform the synchronization in the background. Once
synchronized, the mirrors are placed in the SNAPDONE state.
For example, the following command adds 2 mirrors to the volume, vol1, on
disks mydg10 and mydg11:
# vxsnap -g mydg addmir vol1 nmirror=2 alloc=mydg10,mydg11
If you specify the -b option to the vxsnap addmir command, you can use the
vxsnap snapwait command to wait for synchronization of the snapshot plexes
to complete, as shown in this example:
# vxsnap -g mydg snapwait vol1 nmirror=2
352

To create a third-mirror break-off snapshot, use the following form of the vxsnap
make command.
# vxsnap [-g diskgroup] make source=volume[/newvol=snapvol]\
{/plex=plex1[,plex2,...]|/nmirror=number}
Either of the following attributes may be specified to create the new snapshot
volume, snapvol, by breaking off one or more existing plexes in the original
volume:
plex
Specifies the plexes in the existing volume that are to be broken

off.
nmirror
Specifies how many plexes are to be broken off. This attribute can
only be used with plexes that are in the SNAPDONE state. (Such
plexes could have been added to the volume by using the vxsnap
addmir command.)
Snapshots that are created from one or more ACTIVE or SNAPDONE plexes in
the volume are already synchronized by definition.
For backup purposes, a snapshot volume with one plex should be sufficient.
For example, to create the instant snapshot volume, snap2myvol, of the volume,
myvol, in the disk group, mydg, from a single existing plex in the volume, use
# vxsnap -g mydg make source=myvol/newvol=snap2myvol/nmirror=1
The next example shows how to create a mirrored snapshot from two existing
plexes in the volume:
# vxsnap -g mydg make source=myvol/newvol=snap2myvol/plex=myvol-03,myvol-04


353


volume.
See Reattaching an instant full-sized or plex break-off snapshot
on page 361.
Restore the contents of the original volume from the snapshot volume. You
can choose whether none, a subset, or all of the plexes of the snapshot
volume are returned to the original volume as a result of the operation.
on page 363.
Creating and managing linked break-off snapshot volumes

Linked break-off snapshots are suitable for write-intensive volumes. Specifically,
they are used for off-host processing, because the snapshot could be in a different
disk group to start with and could avoid disk group split/join operations
For linked break-off snapshots, you must prepare a volume that is to be used as
the snapshot volume. This must be the same size as the volume for which the
snapshot is being created, and it must also have the same region size.
on page 344.
354

355
To create and manage a linked break-off snapshot
Use the following command to link the prepared snapshot volume, snapvol, to
the data volume:
# vxsnap [-g diskgroup] [-b] addmir volume mirvol=snapvol \
[mirdg=snapdg]
The optional mirdg attribute can be used to specify the snapshot volumes
current disk group, snapdg. The -b option can be used to perform the
synchronization in the background. If the -b option is not specified, the
command does not return until the link becomes ACTIVE.
For example, the following command links the prepared volume, prepsnap, in
the disk group, mysnapdg, to the volume, vol1, in the disk group, mydg:
# vxsnap -g mydg -b addmir vol1 mirvol=prepsnap mirdg=mysnapdg
If the -b option is specified, you can use the vxsnap snapwait command to
wait for the synchronization of the linked snapshot volume to complete, as
shown in this example:
# vxsnap -g mydg snapwait vol1 mirvol=prepsnap mirdg=mysnapvoldg
To create a linked break-off snapshot, use the following form of the vxsnap
make command.
# vxsnap [-g diskgroup] make
source=volume/snapvol=snapvol\
[/snapdg=snapdiskgroup]
The snapdg attribute must be used to specify the snapshot volumes disk group
if this is different from that of the data volume.
For example, to use the prepared volume, prepsnap, as the snapshot for the
volume, vol1, in the disk group, mydg, use the following command:
# vxsnap -g mydg make source=vol1/snapvol=prepsnap/snapdg=mysnapdg




Reattach the snapshot volume with the original volume.

See Reattaching a linked break-off snapshot volume on page 362.
Creating multiple instant snapshots

You can create multiple instant snapshots for all volumes that form a consistent
group. The vxsnap make command accepts multiple tuples that define the source
and snapshot volumes names as their arguments. For example, to create three
instant snapshots, each with the same redundancy, from specified storage, the
following form of the command can be used:
# vxsnap [-g diskgroup] make source=vol1/snapvol=snapvol1\
source=vol2/snapvol=snapvol2 source=vol3/snapvol=snapvol3
The snapshot volumes (snapvol1, snapvol2 and so on) must have been prepared
in advance.
on page 344.
The specified source volumes (vol1, vol2 and so on) may be the same volume or
they can be different volumes.
If all the snapshots are to be space-optimized and to share the same cache, the
following form of the command can be used:
356

# vxsnap [-g diskgroup] make \

source=vol1/newvol=snapvol1/cache=cacheobj \
The vxsnap make command also allows the snapshots to be of different types, have
different redundancy, and be configured from different storage, as shown here:
# vxsnap [-g diskgroup] make source=vol1/snapvol=snapvol1 \
source=vol2[/newvol=snapvol2]/cache=cacheobj\
[/alloc=storage_attributes2][/nmirror=number2]
source=vol3[/newvol=snapvol3][/alloc=storage_attributes3]\
/nmirror=number3
In this example, snapvol1 is a full-sized snapshot that uses a prepared volume,

snapvol2 is a space-optimized snapshot that uses a prepared cache, and snapvol3
is a break-off full-sized snapshot that is formed from plexes of the original volume.
An example of where you might want to create mixed types of snapshots at the
same time is when taking snapshots of volumes containing database redo logs and
database tables:
# vxsnap -g mydg make \
source=logv1/newvol=snplogv1/drl=sequential/nmirror=1 \
source=logv2/newvol=snplogv2/drl=sequential/nmirror=1 \
source=datav1/newvol=snpdatav1/cache=mydgcobj/drl=on \
source=datav2/newvol=snpdatav2/cache=mydgcobj/drl=on
In this example, sequential DRL is enabled for the snapshots of the redo log
volumes, and normal DRL is applied to the snapshots of the volumes that contain
the database tables. The two space-optimized snapshots are configured to share
the same cache object in the disk group. Also note that break-off snapshots are
used for the redo logs as such volumes are write intensive.
Creating instant snapshots of volume sets

Volume set names can be used in place of volume names with the following vxsnap
operations on instant snapshots: addmir, dis, make, prepare, reattach, refresh,
restore, rmmir, split, syncpause, syncresume, syncstart, syncstop, syncwait,
and unprepare.
The procedure for creating an instant snapshot of a volume set is the same as that
for a standalone volume. However, there are certain restrictions if a full-sized instant
snapshot is to be created from a prepared volume set. A full-sized instant snapshot
357

of a volume set must itself be a volume set with the same number of volumes, and
the same volume sizes and index numbers as the parent. For example, if a volume
set contains three volumes with sizes 1GB, 2GB and 3GB, and indexes 0, 1 and 2
respectively, then the snapshot volume set must have three volumes with the same
sizes matched to the same set of index numbers. The corresponding volumes in
the parent and snapshot volume sets are also subject to the same restrictions as
apply between standalone volumes and their snapshots.
You can use the vxvset list command to verify that the volume sets have identical
characteristics as shown in this example:
# vxvset -g mydg list vset1
VOLUME
vol_0
vol_1
vol_2
INDEX
0
1
2
LENGTH
204800
409600
614400
KSTATE
ENABLED
ENABLED
ENABLED
CONTEXT
-
KSTATE
ENABLED
ENABLED
ENABLED
CONTEXT
-
# vxvset -g mydg list snapvset1

VOLUME
svol_0
svol_1
svol_2
INDEX
0
1
2
LENGTH
204800
409600
614400
A full-sized instant snapshot of a volume set can be created using a prepared

volume set in which each volume is the same size as the corresponding volume in
the parent volume set. Alternatively, you can use the nmirrors attribute to specify
the number of plexes that are to be broken off provided that sufficient plexes exist
for each volume in the volume set.
The following example shows how to prepare a source volume set, vset1, and an
identical volume set, snapvset1, which is then used to create the snapshot:
# vxsnap -g mydg prepare vset1
# vxsnap -g mydg prepare snapvset1
# vxsnap -g mydg make source=vset1/snapvol=snapvset1
To create a full-sized third-mirror break-off snapshot, you must ensure that each
volume in the source volume set contains sufficient plexes. The following example
shows how to achieve this by using the vxsnap command to add the required
number of plexes before breaking off the snapshot:
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# vxsnap -g mydg addmir vset2 nmirror=1
# vxsnap -g mydg make source=vset2/newvol=snapvset2/nmirror=1
See Adding snapshot mirrors to a volume on page 359.

To create a space-optimized instant snapshot of a volume set, the commands are
again identical to those for a standalone volume as shown in these examples:
# vxsnap -g mydg make source=vset3/newvol=snapvset3/cachesize=20m
# vxsnap -g mydg make source=vset4/newvol=snapvset4/cache=mycobj
Here a new cache object is created for the volume set, vset3, and an existing cache
object, mycobj, is used for vset4.
Adding snapshot mirrors to a volume

If you are going to create a full-sized break-off snapshot volume, you can use the
following command to add new snapshot mirrors to a volume:
# vxsnap [-b] [-g diskgroup] addmir volume|volume_set \
[nmirror=N] [alloc=storage_attributes]
The volume must have been prepared using the vxsnap prepare command.
If a volume set name is specified instead of a volume, the specified number of
plexes is added to each volume in the volume set.
By default, the vxsnap addmir command adds one snapshot mirror to a volume
unless you use the nmirror attribute to specify a different number of mirrors. The
mirrors remain in the SNAPATT state until they are fully synchronized. The -b option
can be used to perform the synchronization in the background. Once synchronized,
the mirrors are placed in the SNAPDONE state.
For example, the following command adds 2 mirrors to the volume, vol1, on disks
mydg10 and mydg11:
# vxsnap -g mydg addmir vol1 nmirror=2 alloc=mydg10,mydg11
This command is similar in usage to the vxassist snapstart command, and

supports the traditional third-mirror break-off snapshot model. As such, it does not
provide an instant snapshot capability.
359

Once you have added one or more snapshot mirrors to a volume, you can use the
vxsnap make command with either the nmirror attribute or the plex attribute to
create the snapshot volumes.
Removing a snapshot mirror

To remove a single snapshot mirror from a volume, use this command:
# vxsnap [-g diskgroup] rmmir volume|volume_set
For example, the following command removes a snapshot mirror from the volume,
vol1:
# vxsnap -g mydg rmmir vol1
This command is similar in usage to the vxassist snapabort command.

If a volume set name is specified instead of a volume, a mirror is removed from
each volume in the volume set.
Removing a linked break-off snapshot volume

To remove a linked break-off snapshot volume from a volume, use this command:
# vxsnap [-g diskgroup] rmmir volume|volume_set mirvol=snapvol \
[mirdg=snapdiskgroup]
The mirvol and optional mirdg attributes specify the snapshot volume, snapvol,
and its disk group, snapdiskgroup. For example, the following command removes
a linked snapshot volume, prepsnap, from the volume, vol1:
# vxsnap -g mydg rmmir vol1 mirvol=prepsnap mirdg=mysnapdg
Adding a snapshot to a cascaded snapshot hierarchy

To create a snapshot and push it onto a snapshot hierarchy between the original
volume and an existing snapshot volume, specify the name of the existing snapshot
volume as the value of the infrontof attribute to the vxsnap make command. The
following example shows how to place the space-optimized snapshot, thurs_bu,
of the volume, dbvol, in front of the earlier snapshot, wed_bu:
# vxsnap -g dbdg make source=dbvol/newvol=thurs_bu/\
infrontof=wed_bu/cache=dbdgcache
Similarly, the next snapshot that is taken, fri_bu, is placed in front of thurs_bu:
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# vxsnap -g dbdg make source=dbvol/newvol=fri_bu/\

infrontof=thurs_bu/cache=dbdgcache
Refreshing an instant space-optimized snapshot

Refreshing an instant snapshot replaces it with another point-in-time copy of a
parent volume. To refresh one or more snapshots and make them immediately
available for use, use the following command:
# vxsnap [-g diskgroup] refresh snapvolume|snapvolume_set \
[source=volume|volume_set] [snapvol2 [source=vol2]...] \
If the source volume is not specified, the immediate parent of the snapshot is used.
Warning: The snapshot that is being refreshed must not be open to any application.
For example, any file system configured on the volume must first be unmounted.
Reattaching an instant full-sized or plex break-off snapshot

Using the following command, some or all plexes of an instant snapshot may be
reattached to the specified original volume, or to a source volume in the snapshot
hierarchy above the snapshot volume:
# vxsnap [-g diskgroup] reattach snapvolume|snapvolume_set \
source=volume|volume_set [nmirror=number]
By default, all the plexes are reattached, which results in the removal of the
snapshot. If required, the number of plexes to be reattached may be specified as
the value assigned to the nmirror attribute.
Warning: The snapshot that is being reattached must not be open to any application.
For example, any file system configured on the snapshot volume must first be
unmounted.
It is possible to reattach a volume to an unrelated volume provided that their volume
sizes and region sizes are compatible.
For example the following command reattaches one plex from the snapshot volume,
snapmyvol, to the volume, myvol:
# vxsnap -g mydg reattach snapmyvol source=myvol nmirror=1
361

While the reattached plexes are being resynchronized from the data in the parent
volume, they remain in the SNAPTMP state. After resynchronization is complete, the
plexes are placed in the SNAPDONE state. You can use the vxsnap snapwait
command (but not vxsnap syncwait) to wait for the resynchronization of the
reattached plexes to complete, as shown here:
# vxsnap -g mydg snapwait myvol nmirror=1
If the volume and its snapshot have both been resized (to an identical smaller or
larger size) before performing the reattachment, a fast resynchronization can still
be performed. A full resynchronization is not required. Instant snap DCO volumes
are resized proportionately when the associated data volume is resized. For version
0 DCO volumes, the FastResync maps stay the same size, but the region size is
recalculated, and the locations of the dirty bits in the existing maps are adjusted.
In both cases, new regions are marked as dirty in the maps.
Reattaching a linked break-off snapshot volume

Unlike other types of snapshot, the reattachment operation for linked break-off
snapshot volumes does not return the plexes of the snapshot volume to the parent
volume. The link relationship is re-established that makes the snapshot volume a
mirror of the parent volume, and this allows the snapshot data to be resynchronized.
To reattach a linked break-off snapshot volume, use the following form of the vxsnap
reattach command:
# vxsnap [-g snapdiskgroup] reattach snapvolume|snapvolume_set \
source=volume|volume_set [sourcedg=diskgroup]
The sourcedg attribute must be used to specify the data volumes disk group if this
is different from the snapshot volumes disk group, snapdiskgroup.
Warning: The snapshot that is being reattached must not be open to any application.
For example, any file system configured on the snapshot volume must first be
unmounted.
It is possible to reattach a volume to an unrelated volume provided that their sizes
and region sizes are compatible.
For example the following command reattaches the snapshot volume, prepsnap,
in the disk group, snapdg, to the volume, myvol, in the disk group, mydg:
# vxsnap -g snapdg reattach prepsnap source=myvol sourcedg=mydg
362

After resynchronization of the snapshot volume is complete, the link is placed in

the ACTIVE state. You can use the vxsnap snapwait command (but not vxsnap
syncwait) to wait for the resynchronization of the reattached volume to complete,
as shown here:
# vxsnap -g snapdg snapwait myvol mirvol=prepsnap
Restoring a volume from an instant space-optimized snapshot

It may sometimes be desirable to reinstate the contents of a volume from a backup
or modified replica in a snapshot volume. The following command may be used to
restore one or more volumes from the specified snapshots:
# vxsnap [-g diskgroup] restore volume|volume_set \
source=snapvolume|snapvolume_set \
[[volume2|volume_set2 \
source=snapvolume2|snapvolume_set2]...]\
[syncing=yes|no]
For a space-optimized instant snapshot, the cached data is used to recreate the
contents of the specified volume. The space-optimized instant snapshot remains
unchanged by the restore operation.
Warning: For this operation to succeed, the volume that is being restored and the
snapshot volume must not be open to any application. For example, any file systems
that are configured on either volume must first be unmounted.
It is not possible to restore a volume from an unrelated volume.
The following example demonstrates how to restore the volume, myvol, from the
space-optimized snapshot, snap3myvol.
# vxsnap -g mydg restore myvol source=snap3myvol
Dissociating an instant snapshot

The following command breaks the association between a full-sized instant snapshot
volume, snapvol, and its parent volume, so that the snapshot may be used as an
independent volume:
# vxsnap [-f] [-g diskgroup] dis snapvolume|snapvolume_set
This operation fails if the snapshot, snapvol, has unsynchronized snapshots. If this
happens, the dependent snapshots must be fully synchronized from snapvol. When
363

no dependent snapshots remain, snapvol may be dissociated. The snapshot

hierarchy is then adopted by the parent volume of snapvol.
See Removing an instant snapshot on page 364.
The following command dissociates the snapshot, snap2myvol, from its parent
volume:
# vxsnap -g mydg dis snap2myvol
Warning: When applied to a volume set or to a component volume of a volume set,

this operation can result in inconsistencies in the snapshot hierarchy in the case of
a system crash or hardware failure. If the operation is applied to a volume set, the
-f (force) option must be specified.
Removing an instant snapshot

When you have dissociated a full-sized instant snapshot, you can use the vxedit
command to delete it altogether, as shown in this example:
# vxedit -g mydg -r rm snap2myvol
You can also use this command to remove a space-optimized instant snapshot
from its cache.
See Removing a cache on page 371.
Splitting an instant snapshot hierarchy

Note: This operation is not supported for space-optimized instant snapshots.
The following command breaks the association between a snapshot hierarchy that
has the snapshot volume, snapvol, at its head, and its parent volume, so that the
snapshot hierarchy may be used independently of the parent volume:
# vxsnap [-f] [-g diskgroup] split snapvolume|snapvolume_set
The topmost snapshot volume in the hierarchy must have been fully synchronized
for this command to succeed. Snapshots that are lower down in the hierarchy need
not have been fully resynchronized.
364

The following command splits the snapshot hierarchy under snap2myvol from its
parent volume:
# vxsnap -g mydg split snap2myvol
Warning: When applied to a volume set or to a component volume of a volume set,

this operation can result in inconsistencies in the snapshot hierarchy in the case of
a system crash or hardware failure. If the operation is applied to a volume set, the
-f (force) option must be specified.
Displaying instant snapshot information

The vxsnap print command may be used to display information about the
snapshots that are associated with a volume.
# vxsnap [-g diskgroup] print [vol]
This command shows the percentage progress of the synchronization of a snapshot

or volume. If no volume is specified, information about the snapshots for all the
volumes in a disk group is displayed. The following example shows a volume, vol1,
which has a full-sized snapshot, snapvol1 whose contents have not been
synchronized with vol1:
# vxsnap -g mydg print
NAME
vol1
SNAPOBJECT
-snapvol1_snp1
snapvol1 vol1_snp1
TYPE
PARENT
SNAPSHOT
%DIRTY
%VALID
volume
volume
volume
--vol1
-snapvol1
--
-1.30
1.30
100
-1.30
The %DIRTY value for snapvol1 shows that its contents have changed by 1.30%
when compared with the contents of vol1. As snapvol1 has not been synchronized
with vol1, the %VALID value is the same as the %DIRTY value. If the snapshot were
partly synchronized, the %VALID value would lie between the %DIRTY value and
100%. If the snapshot were fully synchronized, the %VALID value would be 100%.
The snapshot could then be made independent or moved into another disk group.
Additional information about the snapshots of volumes and volume sets can be
obtained by using the -n option with the vxsnap print command:
# vxsnap [-g diskgroup] -n [-l] [-v] [-x] print [vol]
Alternatively, you can use the vxsnap list command, which is an alias for the
vxsnap -n print command:
365

366
# vxsnap [-g diskgroup] [-l] [-v] [-x] list [vol]
The following output is an example of using this command on the disk group dg1:
# vxsnap -g dg -vx list
NAME
vol
svol1
svol2
svol3
svol21
vol-02
mvol
vset1
v1
v2
svset1
sv1
sv2
vol-03
mvol2
DG
dg1
dg2
dg1
dg2
dg1
dg1
dg2
dg1
dg1
dg1
dg1
dg1
dg1
dg1
dg2
OBJTYPE
vol
vol
vol
vol
vol
plex
vol
vset
compvol
compvol
vset
compvol
compvol
plex
vol
SNAPTYPE
fullinst
mirbrk
volbrk
spaceopt
snapmir
mirvol
mirbrk
mirbrk
mirbrk
detmir
detvol
PARENT
vol
vol
vol
svol2
vol
vol
vset
v1
v2
vol
vol
PARENTDG
dg1
dg1
dg1
dg1
dg1
dg1
dg1
dg1
dg1
dg1
dg1
SNAPDATE
2006/2/1
2006/2/1
2006/2/1
2006/2/1
2006/2/1
2006/2/1
2006/2/1
-
CHANGE_DATA
12:29
12:29
12:29
12:29
12:29
12:29
12:29
20M (0.2%)
120M (1.2%)
105M (1.1%)
52M (0.5%)
-
1G (50%)
512M (50%)
512M (50%)
20M (0.2%)
20M (0.2%)
SYNCED_DATA
10G (100%)
60M (0.6%)
10G (100%)
10G (100%)
52M (0.5%)
56M (0.6%)
58M (0.6%)
2G (100%)
1G (100%)
1G (100%)
2G (100%)
1G (100%)
1G (100%)
-
This shows that the volume vol has three full-sized snapshots, svol1, svol2 and
svol3, which are of types full-sized instant (fullinst), mirror break-off (mirbrk)
and linked break-off (volbrk). It also has one snapshot plex (snapmir), vol-02,
and one linked mirror volume (mirvol), mvol. The snapshot svol2 itself has a
space-optimized instant snapshot (spaceopt), svol21. There is also a volume set,
vset1, with component volumes v1 and v2. This volume set has a mirror break-off
snapshot, svset1, with component volumes sv1 and sv2. The last two entries show
a detached plex, vol-03, and a detached mirror volume, mvol2, which have vol
as their parent volume. These snapshot objects may have become detached due
to an I/O error, or, in the case of the plex, by running the vxplex det command.
The CHANGE_DATA column shows the approximate difference between the current
contents of the snapshot and its parent volume. This corresponds to the amount
of data that would have to be resynchronized to make the contents the same again.
The SYNCED_DATA column shows the approximate progress of synchronization since
the snapshot was taken.
The -l option can be used to obtain a longer form of the output listing instead of
the tabular form.
The -x option expands the output to include the component volumes of volume
sets.

See the vxsnap(1M) manual page for more information about using the vxsnap
print and vxsnap list commands.
Controlling instant snapshot synchronization

Synchronization of the contents of a snapshot with its original volume is not possible
for space-optimized instant snapshots.
By default, synchronization is enabled for the vxsnap reattach, refresh and
restore operations on instant snapshots. Otherwise, synchronization is disabled
unless you specify the syncing=yes attribute to the vxsnap command.
Table 16-1 shows the commands that are provided for controlling the synchronization
manually.
Table 16-1
Commands for controlling instant snapshot synchronization
Command
Description
vxsnap [-g diskgroup] syncpause \

vol|vol_set
Pause synchronization of a
volume.
vxsnap [-g diskgroup] syncresume \
Resume synchronization of a
volume.
vol|vol_set
vxsnap [-b] [-g diskgroup] syncstart \
vol|vol_set
Start synchronization of a volume.

The -b option puts the operation
in the background.
vxsnap [-g diskgroup] syncstop \

vol|vol_set
Stop synchronization of a volume.
vxsnap [-g diskgroup] syncwait \

vol|vol_set
Exit when synchronization of a

volume is complete. An error is
returned if the vol or vol_set is
invalid (for example, it is a
space-optimized snapshot), or if
the vol or vol_set is not being
synchronized.
Note: You cannot use this

command to wait for
synchronization of reattached
plexes to complete.
The commands that are shown in Table 16-1 cannot be used to control the
synchronization of linked break-off snapshots.
367

The vxsnap snapwait command is provided to wait for the link between new linked
break-off snapshots to become ACTIVE, or for reattached snapshot plexes to reach
the SNAPDONE state following resynchronization.
See Reattaching an instant full-sized or plex break-off snapshot on page 361.
See Reattaching a linked break-off snapshot volume on page 362.
Improving the performance of snapshot synchronization

The following optional arguments to the -o option are provided to help optimize the
performance of synchronization when using the make, refresh, restore and
syncstart operations with full-sized instant snapshots:
iosize=size
Specifies the size of each I/O request that is used when

synchronizing the regions of a volume. Specifying a larger size
causes synchronization to complete sooner, but with greater impact
on the performance of other processes that are accessing the
volume. The default size of 1m (1MB) is suggested as the minimum
value for high-performance array and controller hardware. The
specified value is rounded to a multiple of the volumes region size.
slow=iodelay
Specifies the delay in milliseconds between synchronizing

successive sets of regions as specified by the value of iosize.
This can be used to change the impact of synchronization on system
performance. The default value of iodelay is 0 milliseconds (no
delay). Increasing this value slows down synchronization, and
reduces the competition for I/O bandwidth with other processes
that may be accessing the volume.
Options may be combined as shown in the following examples:

# vxsnap -g mydg -o iosize=2m,slow=100 make \
source=myvol/snapvol=snap2myvol/syncing=on
# vxsnap -g mydg -o iosize=10m,slow=250 syncstart snap2myvol
Note: The iosize and slow parameters are not supported for space-optimized
snapshots.
368

Listing the snapshots created on a cache

To list the space-optimized instant snapshots that have been created on a cache
object, use the following command:
# vxcache [-g diskgroup] listvol cache_object
The snapshot names are printed as a space-separated list ordered by timestamp.

If two or more snapshots have the same timestamp, these snapshots are sorted in
order of decreasing size.
Tuning the autogrow attributes of a cache

The highwatermark, autogrowby and maxautogrow attributes determine how the
VxVM cache daemon (vxcached) maintains the cache if the autogrow feature has
been enabled and vxcached is running:
When cache usage reaches the high watermark value, highwatermark (default
value is 90 percent), vxcached grows the size of the cache volume by the value
of autogrowby (default value is 20% of the size of the cache volume in blocks).
The new required cache size cannot exceed the value of maxautogrow (default
value is twice the size of the cache volume in blocks).
When cache usage reaches the high watermark value, and the new required
cache size would exceed the value of maxautogrow, vxcached deletes the oldest
snapshot in the cache. If there are several snapshots with the same age, the
largest of these is deleted.
If the autogrow feature has been disabled:
When cache usage reaches the high watermark value, vxcached deletes the
oldest snapshot in the cache. If there are several snapshots with the same age,
the largest of these is deleted. If there is only a single snapshot, this snapshot
is detached and marked as invalid.
Note: The vxcached daemon does not remove snapshots that are currently open,
and it does not remove the last or only snapshot in the cache.
If the cache space becomes exhausted, the snapshot is detached and marked as
invalid. If this happens, the snapshot is unrecoverable and must be removed.
Enabling the autogrow feature on the cache helps to avoid this situation occurring.
However, for very small caches (of the order of a few megabytes), it is possible for
the cache to become exhausted before the system has time to respond and grow
the cache. In such cases, you can increase the size of the cache manually.
369

Alternatively, you can use the vxcache set command to reduce the value of
highwatermark as shown in this example:
# vxcache -g mydg set highwatermark=60 cobjmydg
You can use the maxautogrow attribute to limit the maximum size to which a cache
can grow. To estimate this size, consider how much the contents of each source
volume are likely to change between snapshot refreshes, and allow some additional
space for contingency.
If necessary, you can use the vxcache set command to change other autogrow
attribute values for a cache.
See the vxcache(1M) manual page.
Monitoring and displaying cache usage

You can use the vxcache stat command to display cache usage. For example,
to see how much space is used and how much remains available in all cache objects
in the diskgroup mydg, enter the following:
# vxcache -g mydg stat
Growing and shrinking a cache

You can use the vxcache command to increase the size of the cache volume that
is associated with a cache object:
# vxcache [-g diskgroup] growcacheto cache_object
size
For example, to increase the size of the cache volume associated with the cache
object, mycache, to 2GB, you would use the following command:
# vxcache -g mydg growcacheto mycache 2g
To grow a cache by a specified amount, use the following form of the command
shown here:
# vxcache [-g diskgroup] growcacheby cache_object
size
For example, the following command increases the size of mycache by 1GB:
# vxcache -g mydg growcacheby mycache 1g
370

You can similarly use the shrinkcacheby and shrinkcacheto operations to reduce
the size of a cache.
See the vxcache(1M) manual page.
Removing a cache
To remove a cache completely, including the cache object, its cache volume and all
space-optimized snapshots that use the cache:
Run the following command to find out the names of the top-level snapshot
volumes that are configured on the cache object:
# vxprint -g diskgroup -vne \
"v_plex.pl_subdisk.sd_dm_name ~ /cache_object/"
where cache_object is the name of the cache object.
Remove all the top-level snapshots and their dependent snapshots (this can
be done with a single command):
# vxedit -g diskgroup -r rm snapvol ...
where snapvol is the name of a top-level snapshot volume.
Stop the cache object:

# vxcache -g diskgroup stop cache_object
Finally, remove the cache object and its cache volume:

# vxedit -g diskgroup -r rm cache_object

VxVM provides third-mirror break-off snapshot images of volume devices using
vxassist and other commands.
To enhance the efficiency and usability of volume snapshots, turn on FastResync.
If Persistent FastResync is required, you must associate a version 0 DCO with the
volume.
See Adding a version 0 DCO and DCO volume on page 380.
A plex is required that is large enough to store the complete contents of the volume.
Alternatively, you can use space-optimized instant snapshots.
371

The recommended approach to performing volume backup from the command line,
or from a script, is to use the vxsnap command. The vxassist snapstart,
snapwait, and snapshot commands are supported for backward compatibility.
The vxassist snapshot procedure consists of two steps:
Run vxassist snapstart to create a snapshot mirror.
Run vxassist snapshot to create a snapshot volume.
The vxassist snapstart step creates a write-only backup plex which gets attached
to and synchronized with the volume. When synchronized with the volume, the
backup plex is ready to be used as a snapshot mirror. The end of the update
procedure is indicated by the new snapshot mirror changing its state to SNAPDONE.
This change can be tracked by the vxassist snapwait task, which waits until at
least one of the mirrors changes its state to SNAPDONE. If the attach process fails,
the snapshot mirror is removed and its space is released.
Note: If the snapstart procedure is interrupted, the snapshot mirror is automatically
removed when the volume is started.
Once the snapshot mirror is synchronized, it continues being updated until it is
detached. You can then select a convenient time at which to create a snapshot
volume as an image of the existing volume. You can also ask users to refrain from
using the system during the brief time required to perform the snapshot (typically
less than a minute). The amount of time involved in creating the snapshot mirror
is long in contrast to the brief amount of time that it takes to create the snapshot
volume.
The online backup procedure is completed by running the vxassist snapshot
command on a volume with a SNAPDONE mirror. This task detaches the finished
snapshot (which becomes a normal mirror), creates a new normal volume and
attaches the snapshot mirror to the snapshot volume. The snapshot then becomes
a normal, functioning volume and the state of the snapshot is set to ACTIVE.
372

To back up a volume using the vxassist command
Create a snapshot mirror for a volume using the following command:

# vxassist [-b] [-g diskgroup] snapstart [nmirror=N] volume
For example, to create a snapshot mirror of a volume called voldef, use the
following command:
# vxassist [-g diskgroup] snapstart voldef
The vxassist snapstart task creates a write-only mirror, which is attached

to and synchronized from the volume to be backed up.
By default, VxVM attempts to avoid placing snapshot mirrors on a disk that
already holds any plexes of a data volume. However, this may be impossible
if insufficient space is available in the disk group. In this case, VxVM uses any
available space on other disks in the disk group. If the snapshot plexes are
placed on disks which are used to hold the plexes of other volumes, this may
cause problems when you subsequently attempt to move a snapshot volume
into another disk group.
See Moving DCO volumes between disk groups on page 594.
To override the default storage allocation policy, you can use storage attributes
to specify explicitly which disks to use for the snapshot plexes.
If you start vxassist snapstart in the background using the -b option, you
can use the vxassist snapwait command to wait for the creation of the mirror
to complete as shown here:
# vxassist [-g diskgroup] snapwait volume
If vxassist snapstart is not run in the background, it does not exit until the
mirror has been synchronized with the volume. The mirror is then ready to be
used as a plex of a snapshot volume. While attached to the original volume,
its contents continue to be updated until you take the snapshot.
Use the nmirror attribute to create as many snapshot mirrors as you need for
the snapshot volume. For a backup, you should usually only require the default
of one.
It is also possible to make a snapshot plex from an existing plex in a volume.
See Converting a plex into a snapshot plex on page 375.
Choose a suitable time to create a snapshot. If possible, plan to take the

snapshot at a time when users are accessing the volume as little as possible.
373

Create a snapshot volume using the following command:

# vxassist [-g diskgroup] snapshot [nmirror=N] volume snapshot
If required, use the nmirror attribute to specify the number of mirrors in the
snapshot volume.
For example, to create a snapshot of voldef, use the following command:
# vxassist -g mydg snapshot voldef snapvoldef
The vxassist snapshot task detaches the finished snapshot mirror, creates
a new volume, and attaches the snapshot mirror to it. This step should only
take a few minutes. The snapshot volume, which reflects the original volume
at the time of the snapshot, is now available for backing up, while the original
volume continues to be available for applications and users.
If required, you can make snapshot volumes for several volumes in a disk
group at the same time.
See Creating multiple snapshots with the vxassist command on page 376.

If you require a backup of the data in the snapshot, use an appropriate utility
or operating system command to copy the contents of the snapshot to tape,
or to some other backup medium.
When the backup is complete, you have the following choices for what to do
with the snapshot volume:
volume.
See Reattaching a snapshot volume on page 377.
If FastResync was enabled on the volume before the snapshot was taken,
this speeds resynchronization of the snapshot plexes before the backup
cycle starts again at step 3.
Dissociate the snapshot volume entirely from the original volume

See Dissociating a snapshot volume on page 378.
This may be useful if you want to use the copy for other purposes such as
testing or report generation.
374

Remove the snapshot volume to save space with this command:

# vxedit [-g diskgroup] -rf rm snapshot
Dissociating or removing the snapshot volume loses the advantage of fast

resynchronization if FastResync was enabled. If there are no further snapshot
plexes available, any subsequent snapshots that you take require another
complete copy of the original volume to be made.
Converting a plex into a snapshot plex

For a traditional, third-mirror break-off snapshot, you can convert an existing plex
in a volume into a snapshot plex. Symantec recommends using the instant snapshot
feature rather than converting a plex into a snapshot plex.
Note: A plex cannot be converted into a snapshot plex for layered volumes or for
any volume that has an associated instant snap DCO volume.
In some circumstances, you may find it more convenient to convert an existing plex
in a volume into a snapshot plex rather than running vxassist snapstart. For
example, you may want to do this if you are short of disk space for creating the
snapshot plex and the volume that you want to snapshot contains more than two
plexes.
The procedure can also be used to speed up the creation of a snapshot volume
when a mirrored volume is created with more than two plexes and init=active is
specified.
It is advisable to retain at least two plexes in a volume to maintain data redundancy.
To convert an existing plex into a snapshot plex for a volume on which Persistent
FastResync is enabled, use the following command:
# vxplex [-g diskgroup] -o dcoplex=dcologplex convert \
state=SNAPDONE plex
dcologplex is the name of an existing DCO plex that is to be associated with the
new snapshot plex. You can use the vxprint command to find out the name of the
DCO volume.
For example, to make a snapshot plex from the plex trivol-03 in the 3-plex volume
trivol, you would use the following command:
375

# vxplex -o dcoplex=trivol_dco-03 convert state=SNAPDONE \

trivol-03
Here the DCO plex trivol_dco_03 is specified as the DCO plex for the new
snapshot plex.
To convert an existing plex into a snapshot plex in the SNAPDONE state for a
volume on which Non-Persistent FastResync is enabled, use the following command:
# vxplex [-g diskgroup] convert state=SNAPDONE plex
A converted plex is in the SNAPDONE state, and can be used immediately to create
a snapshot volume.
Note: The last complete regular plex in a volume, an incomplete regular plex, or a
dirty region logging (DRL) log plex cannot be converted into a snapshot plex.
See Third-mirror break-off snapshots on page 313.
Creating multiple snapshots with the vxassist command

To make it easier to create snapshots of several volumes at the same time, the
snapshot option accepts more than one volume name as its argument, for example:
# vxassist [-g diskgroup] snapshot volume1
volume2 ...
By default, the first snapshot volume is named SNAP-volume, and each subsequent
snapshot is named SNAPnumber-volume, where number is a unique serial number,
and volume is the name of the volume for which the snapshot is being taken. This
default pattern can be overridden by using the option -o name=pattern, as
described on the vxassist(1M) manual page. For example, the pattern SNAP%v-%d
reverses the order of the number and volume components in the name.
To snapshot all the volumes in a single disk group, specify the option -o allvols
to vxassist:
# vxassist -g diskgroup -o allvols snapshot
This operation requires that all snapstart operations are complete on the volumes.
It fails if any of the volumes in the disk group do not have a complete snapshot plex
in the SNAPDONE state.
Note: The vxsnap command provides similiar functionality for creating multiple
snapshots.
376

Reattaching a snapshot volume

The snapback operation merges a snapshot copy of a volume with the original
volume. One or more snapshot plexes are detached from the snapshot volume and
re-attached to the original volume. The snapshot volume is removed if all its snapshot
plexes are snapped back. This task resynchronizes the data in the volume so that
the plexes are consistent.
The snapback operation cannot be applied to RAID-5 volumes unless they have
been converted to a special layered volume layout by the addition of a DCO and
DCO volume.
To enhance the efficiency of the snapback operation, enable FastResync on the
volume before taking the snapshot
To merge one snapshot plex with the original volume, use the following command:
# vxassist [-g diskgroup] snapback snapshot
where snapshot is the snapshot copy of the volume.

To merge all snapshot plexes in the snapshot volume with the original volume, use
# vxassist [-g diskgroup] -o allplexes snapback snapshot
To merge a specified number of plexes from the snapshot volume with the original
volume, use the following command:
# vxassist [-g diskgroup] snapback nmirror=number snapshot
Here the nmirror attribute specifies the number of mirrors in the snapshot volume
that are to be re-attached.
Once the snapshot plexes have been reattached and their data resynchronized,
they are ready to be used in another snapshot operation.
By default, the data in the original volume is used to update the snapshot plexes
that have been re-attached. To copy the data from the replica volume instead, use
# vxassist [-g diskgroup] -o resyncfromreplica snapback snapshot
Warning: Always unmount the snapshot volume (if this is mounted) before performing
a snapback. In addition, you must unmount the file system corresponding to the
primary volume before using the resyncfromreplica option.
377

Adding plexes to a snapshot volume

If you want to retain the existing plexes in a snapshot volume after a snapback
operation, you can create additional snapshot plexes that are to be used for the
snapback.
To add plexes to a snapshot volume
Use the following vxprint commands to discover the names of the snapshot
volumes data change object (DCO) and DCO volume:
# DCONAME=`vxprint [-g diskgroup] -F%dco_name snapshot`
# DCOVOL=`vxprint [-g diskgroup] -F%log_vol $DCONAME`
Use the vxassist mirror command to create mirrors of the existing snapshot
volume and its DCO volume:
# vxassist -g diskgroup mirror snapshot
# vxassist -g diskgroup mirror $DCOVOL
The new plex in the DCO volume is required for use with the new data plex in
the snapshot.
Use the vxprint command to find out the name of the additional snapshot
plex:
# vxprint -g diskgroup snapshot
Use the vxprint command to find out the record ID of the additional DCO
plex:
# vxprint -g diskgroup -F%rid $DCOVOL
Use the vxedit command to set the dco_plex_rid field of the new data plex
to the name of the new DCO plex:
# vxedit -g diskgroup set dco_plex_rid=dco_plex_rid new_plex
The new data plex is now ready to be used to perform a snapback operation.
Dissociating a snapshot volume

The link between a snapshot and its original volume can be permanently broken
so that the snapshot volume becomes an independent volume. Use the following
command to dissociate the snapshot volume, snapshot:
# vxassist snapclear snapshot
378

Displaying snapshot information

The vxassist snapprintcommand displays the associations between the original
volumes and their respective replicas (snapshot copies):
# vxassist snapprint [volume]
Output from this command is shown in the following examples:

# vxassist -g mydg snapprint v1
V NAME
SS SNAPOBJ
DP NAME
USETYPE
NAME
VOLUME
LENGTH
LENGTH
LENGTH
%DIRTY
%DIRTY
v
ss
dp
dp
fsgen
SNAP-v1
v1
v1
20480
20480
20480
20480
4
0
0
fsgen
v1
20480
20480
v1
SNAP-v1_snp
v1-01
v1-02
v SNAP-v1
ss v1_snp
# vxassist -g mydg snapprint v2

V NAME
SS SNAPOBJ
DP NAME
USETYPE
NAME
VOLUME
LENGTH
LENGTH
LENGTH
%DIRTY
%DIRTY
v v2
ss -dp v2-01
fsgen
SNAP-v2
v2
20480
20480
20480
0
0
v SNAP-v2
ss --
fsgen
v2
20480
20480
In this example, Persistent FastResync is enabled on volume v1, and Non-Persistent

FastResync on volume v2. Lines beginning with v, dp and ss indicate a volume,
detached plex and snapshot plex respectively. The %DIRTY field indicates the
percentage of a snapshot plex or detached plex that is dirty with respect to the
original volume. Notice that no snap objects are associated with volume v2 or with
its snapshot volume SNAP-v2.
If a volume is specified, the snapprint command displays an error message if no
FastResync maps are enabled for that volume.
379


To put Persistent FastResync into effect for a volume, a data change object (DCO)
and DCO volume must be associated with that volume. After you add a DCO object
and DCO volume to a volume, you can enable Persistent FastResync on the volume.
Note: You need a FastResync license key to use the FastResync feature. Even if
you do not have a license, you can configure a DCO object and DCO volume so
that snap objects are associated with the original and snapshot volumes.
The procedure in this section describes adding a version 0 layout DCO. A version
0 DCO layout supports traditional (third-mirror break-off) snapshots that are
administered with the vxassist command. A version 0 DCO layout does not support
full-sized or space-optimized instant snapshots.
To add a DCO object and DCO volume to an existing volume
Ensure that the disk group containing the existing volume has at least disk
group version 90. To check the version of a disk group:
# vxdg list diskgroup
If required, upgrade the disk group to the latest version:

380

Turn off Non-Persistent FastResync on the original volume if it is currently

enabled:
# vxvol [-g diskgroup] set fastresync=off volume
If you are uncertain about which volumes have Non-Persistent FastResync

enabled, use the following command to obtain a listing of such volumes.
Note: The ! character is a special character in some shells. The following
example shows how to escape it in a bash shell.
# vxprint [-g diskgroup] -F "%name" \
-e "v_fastresync=on && \!v_hasdcolog"
Add a DCO and DCO volume to the existing volume (which may already have
dirty region logging (DRL) enabled):
# vxassist [-g diskgroup] addlog volume logtype=dco \
[ndcomirror=number] [dcolen=size] [storage_attributes]
For non-layered volumes, the default number of plexes in the mirrored DCO
volume is equal to the lesser of the number of plexes in the data volume or 2.
For layered volumes, the default number of DCO plexes is always 2. If required,
use the ndcomirror attribute to specify a different number. It is recommended
that you configure as many DCO plexes as there are existing data and snapshot
plexes in the volume. For example, specify ndcomirror=3 when adding a DCO
to a 3-way mirrored volume.
The default size of each plex is 132 blocks. You can use the dcolen attribute
to specify a different size. If specified, the size of the plex must be an integer
multiple of 33 blocks from 33 up to a maximum of 2112 blocks.
You can specify vxassist-style storage attributes to define the disks that can
or cannot be used for the plexes of the DCO volume.
See Specifying storage for version 0 DCO plexes on page 381.
Specifying storage for version 0 DCO plexes

If the disks that contain volumes and their snapshots are to be moved or split into
different disk groups, the disks that contain their respective DCO plexes must be
able to accompany them. By default, VxVM attempts to place version 0 DCO plexes
on the same disks as the data plexes of the parent volume. However, this may be
impossible if there is insufficient space available on those disks. In this case, VxVM
uses any available space on other disks in the disk group. If the DCO plexes are
381

placed on disks which are used to hold the plexes of other volumes, this may cause
problems when you subsequently attempt to move volumes into other disk groups.
You can use storage attributes to specify explicitly which disks to use for the DCO
plexes. If possible, specify the same disks as those on which the volume is
configured.
For example, to add a DCO object and DCO volume with plexes on mydg05 and
mydg06, and a plex size of 264 blocks to the volume, myvol, in the disk group, mydg,
# vxassist -g mydg addlog myvol logtype=dco dcolen=264 mydg05 mydg06
To view the details of the DCO object and DCO volume that are associated with a
volume, use the vxprint command. The following is partial vxprint output for the
volume named vol1 (the TUTIL0 and PUTIL0 columns are omitted for clarity):
TY
v
pl
sd
pl
sd
dc
v
pl
sd
pl
sd
NAME
vol1
vol1-01
disk01-01
vol1-02
disk02-01
vol1_dco
vol1_dcl
vol1_dcl-01
disk03-01
vol1_dcl-02
disk04-01
ASSOC
fsgen
vol1
vol1-01
vol1
vol1-02
vol1
gen
vol1_dcl
vol1_dcl-01
vol1_dcl
vol1_dcl-02
KSTATE
ENABLED
ENABLED
ENABLED
ENABLED
ENABLED
ENABLED
ENABLED
ENABLED
ENABLED
ENABLED
LENGTH
1024
1024
1024
1024
1024
132
132
132
132
132
PLOFFS
0
0
0
0
STATE ...
ACTIVE
ACTIVE
ACTIVE
ACTIVE
ACTIVE
ACTIVE
-
In this output, the DCO object is shown as vol1_dco, and the DCO volume as
vol1_dcl with 2 plexes, vol1_dcl-01 and vol1_dcl-02.
If required, you can use the vxassist move command to relocate DCO plexes to
different disks. For example, the following command moves the plexes of the DCO
volume, vol1_dcl, for volume vol1 from disk03 and disk04 to disk07 and disk08.
Note: The ! character is a special character in some shells. The following example
# vxassist -g mydg move vol1_dcl \!disk03 \!disk04 disk07 disk08
See Moving DCO volumes between disk groups on page 594.

382

Removing a version 0 DCO and DCO volume

To dissociate a version 0 DCO object, DCO volume and any snap objects from a
volume, use the following command:
# vxassist [-g diskgroup] remove log volume logtype=dco
This completely removes the DCO object, DCO volume and any snap objects. It
also has the effect of disabling FastResync for the volume.
Alternatively, you can use the vxdco command to the same effect:
# vxdco [-g diskgroup] [-o rm] dis dco_obj
The default name of the DCO object, dco_obj, for a volume is usually formed by
appending the string _dco to the name of the parent volume. To find out the name
of the associated DCO object, use the vxprint command on the volume.
To dissociate, but not remove, the DCO object, DCO volume and any snap objects
from the volume, myvol, in the disk group, mydg, use the following command:
# vxdco -g mydg dis myvol_dco
This form of the command dissociates the DCO object from the volume but does
not destroy it or the DCO volume. If the -o rm option is specified, the DCO object,
DCO volume and its plexes, and any snap objects are also removed.
Warning: Dissociating a DCO and DCO volume disables Persistent FastResync on
the volume. A full resynchronization of any remaining snapshots is required when
they are snapped back.
See the vxdco(1M) manual pages.
Reattaching a version 0 DCO and DCO volume

If a version 0 DCO object and DCO volume are not removed by specifying the -o
rm option to vxdco, they can be reattached to the parent volume using the following
command:
# vxdco [-g diskgroup] att volume dco_obj
For example, to reattach the DCO object, myvol_dco, to the volume, myvol, use
# vxdco -g mydg att myvol myvol_dco
383

See the vxdco(1M) manual page.
384
Chapter
17
Administering Storage
Checkpoints
About Storage Checkpoints
Storage Checkpoint administration
Storage Checkpoint space management considerations
Restoring from a Storage Checkpoint
Storage Checkpoint quotas
About Storage Checkpoints

Veritas File System (VxFS) provides a Storage Checkpoint feature that quickly
creates a persistent image of a file system at an exact point in time. Storage
Checkpoints significantly reduce I/O overhead by identifying and maintaining only
the file system blocks that have changed since the last Storage Checkpoint or
backup via a copy-on-write technique.
See Copy-on-write on page 319.
Storage Checkpoints provide:
Persistence through reboots and crashes.
The ability for data to be immediately writeable by preserving the file system
metadata, the directory hierarchy, and user data.
Storage Checkpoints are actually data objects that are managed and controlled by
the file system. You can create, remove, and rename Storage Checkpoints because
they are data objects with associated names.
Administering Storage Checkpoints

See How a Storage Checkpoint works on page 317.

Unlike a disk-based mirroring technology that requires a separate storage space,
Storage Checkpoints minimize the use of disk space by using a Storage Checkpoint
within the same free space available to the file system.
After you create a Storage Checkpoint of a mounted file system, you can also
continue to create, remove, and update files on the file system without affecting the
logical image of the Storage Checkpoint. A Storage Checkpoint preserves not only
the name space (directory hierarchy) of the file system, but also the user data as
it existed at the moment the file system image was captured.
You can use a Storage Checkpoint in many ways. For example, you can use them
to:
Create a stable image of the file system that can be backed up to tape.
Provide a mounted, on-disk backup of the file system so that end users can
restore their own files in the event of accidental deletion. This is especially useful
in a home directory, engineering, or email environment.
Create a copy of an application's binaries before installing a patch to allow for

rollback in case of problems.
Create an on-disk backup of the file system in that can be used in addition to a
traditional tape-based backup to provide faster backup and restore capabilities.
Test new software on a point-in-time image of the primary fileset without

jeopardizing the live data in the current primary fileset by mounting the Storage
Checkpoints as writable.

Storage Checkpoint administrative operations require the fsckptadm utility.
You can use the fsckptadm utility to create and remove Storage Checkpoints,
change attributes, and ascertain statistical data. Every Storage Checkpoint has an
associated name, which allows you to manage Storage Checkpoints; this name is
limited to 127 characters and cannot contain a colon (:).
See Creating a Storage Checkpoint on page 387.
See Removing a Storage Checkpoint on page 388.
Storage Checkpoints require some space for metadata on the volume or set of
volumes specified by the file system allocation policy or Storage Checkpoint
allocation policy. The fsckptadm utility displays an error if the volume or set of
volumes does not have enough free space to contain the metadata. You can roughly
386

approximate the amount of space required by the metadata using a method that
depends on the disk layout version of the file system.
For disk layout Version 7, multiply the number of inodes by 1 byte, and add 1 or 2
megabytes to get the approximate amount of space required. You can determine
the number of inodes with the fsckptadm utility.
Use the fsvoladm command to determine if the volume set has enough free space.
See the fsvoladm(1M) manual page.
The following example lists the volume sets and displays the storage sizes in
human-friendly units:
# fsvoladm -H list /mnt0
devid
0
1
size
20 GB
30 TB
used
10 GB
10 TB
avail
10 GB
20 TB
name
vol1
vol2
Creating a Storage Checkpoint

The following example shows the creation of a nodata Storage Checkpoint named
thu_7pm on /mnt0 and lists all Storage Checkpoints of the /mnt0 file system:
# fsckptadm -n create thu_7pm /mnt0
# fsckptadm list /mnt0
/mnt0
thu_7pm:
ctime
= Thu 3 Mar 2005 7:00:17 PM PST
mtime
= Thu 3 Mar 2005 7:00:17 PM PST
flags
= nodata, largefiles
The following example shows the creation of a removable Storage Checkpoint

named thu_8pm on /mnt0 and lists all Storage Checkpoints of the /mnt0 file system:
# fsckptadm -r create thu_8pm /mnt0
/mnt0
thu_8pm:
ctime
mtime
flags
thu_7pm:
ctime
mtime
flags
= Thu 3 Mar 2005 8:00:19 PM PST

= Thu 3 Mar 2005 8:00:19 PM PST
= largefiles, removable
= Thu 3 Mar 2005 7:00:17 PM PST
= Thu 3 Mar 2005 7:00:17 PM PST
387

Removing a Storage Checkpoint

You can delete a Storage Checkpoint by specifying the remove keyword of the
fsckptadm command. Specifically, you can use either the synchronous or
asynchronous method of removing a Storage Checkpoint; the asynchronous method
is the default method. The synchronous method entirely removes the Storage
Checkpoint and returns all of the blocks to the file system before completing the
fsckptadm operation. The asynchronous method simply marks the Storage
Checkpoint for removal and causes fsckptadm to return immediately. At a later
time, an independent kernel thread completes the removal operation and releases
the space used by the Storage Checkpoint.
In this example, /mnt0 is a mounted VxFS file system with a Version 9 disk layout.
This example shows the asynchronous removal of the Storage Checkpoint named
thu_8pm and synchronous removal of the Storage Checkpoint named thu_7pm.
This example also lists all the Storage Checkpoints remaining on the /mnt0 file
system after the specified Storage Checkpoint is removed:
# fsckptadm remove thu_8pm /mnt0
/mnt0
thu_7pm:
ctime
= Thu 3 Mar 2005 7:00:17 PM PST
mtime
= Thu 3 Mar 2005 7:00:17 PM PST
flags
# fsckptadm -s remove thu_7pm /mnt0
/mnt0
Accessing a Storage Checkpoint

You can mount Storage Checkpoints using the mount command with the mount
option -o ckpt=ckpt_name.
Observe the following rules when mounting Storage Checkpoints:
Storage Checkpoints are mounted as read/write Storage Checkpoints by default.
If a Storage Checkpoint is currently mounted as a read-only Storage Checkpoint,

you can remount it as a writable Storage Checkpoint using the -o remount
option.
To mount a Storage Checkpoint of a file system, first mount the file system itself.
To unmount a file system, first unmount all of its Storage Checkpoints.
388

Warning: If you create a Storage Checkpoint for backup purposes, do not mount it
as a writable Storage Checkpoint. You will lose the point-in-time image if you
accidently write to the Storage Checkpoint.
If older Storage Checkpoints already exist, write activity to a writable Storage
Checkpoint can generate copy operations and increased space usage in the older
Storage Checkpoints.
A Storage Checkpoint is mounted on a special pseudo device. This pseudo device
does not exist in the system name space; the device is internally created by the
system and used while the Storage Checkpoint is mounted. The pseudo device is
removed after you unmount the Storage Checkpoint. A pseudo device name is
formed by appending the Storage Checkpoint name to the file system device name
using the colon character (:) as the separator.
For example, if a Storage Checkpoint named may_23 belongs to the file system
residing on the special device /dev/vx/dsk/fsvol/vol1, the Storage Checkpoint
pseudo device name is:
/dev/vx/dsk/fsvol/vol1:may_23
To mount the Storage Checkpoint named may_23 as a read-only Storage

Checkpoint on directory /fsvol_may_23, type:
# mount -t vxfs -o ckpt=may_23 /dev/vx/dsk/fsvol/vol1:may_23 \
/fsvol_may_23
Note: The vol1 file system must already be mounted before the Storage
Checkpoint can be mounted.
To remount the Storage Checkpoint named may_23 as a writable Storage

Checkpoint, type:
# mount -t vxfs -o ckpt=may_23,remount,rw \
/dev/vx/dsk/fsvol/vol1:may_23 /fsvol_may_23
To mount this Storage Checkpoint automatically when the system starts up, put
the following entries in the /etc/fstab file:
Device-Special-File
Mount-Point
fstype
options
/dev/vx/dsk/fsvol/
vol1
/fsvol
vxfs
defaults
backupfrequency
0
passnumber
0
389

/dev/vx/dsk/fsvol/
vol1:may_23
/fsvol_may_23
vxfs
ckpt=may_23 0
To mount a Storage Checkpoint of a cluster file system, you must also use the
-o cluster option:
# mount -t vxfs -o cluster,ckpt=may_23 \
/dev/vx/dsk/fsvol/vol1:may_23 /fsvol_may_23
You can only mount a Storage Checkpoint cluster-wide if the file system that
the Storage Checkpoint belongs to is also mounted cluster-wide. Similarly, you
can only mount a Storage Checkpoint locally if the file system that the Storage
Checkpoint belongs to is mounted locally.
You can unmount Storage Checkpoints using the umount command.
See the umount(1M) manual page.
Storage Checkpoints can be unmounted by the mount point or pseudo device name:
# umount /fsvol_may_23
# umount /dev/vx/dsk/fsvol/vol1:may_23
Note: You do not need to run the fsck utility on Storage Checkpoint pseudo devices
because pseudo devices are part of the actual file system.
Converting a data Storage Checkpoint to a nodata Storage

Checkpoint
A nodata Storage Checkpoint does not contain actual file data. Instead, this type
of Storage Checkpoint contains a collection of markers indicating the location of all
the changed blocks since the Storage Checkpoint was created.
See Types of Storage Checkpoints on page 321.
You can use either the synchronous or asynchronous method to convert a data
Storage Checkpoint to a nodata Storage Checkpoint; the asynchronous method is
the default method. In a synchronous conversion, fsckptadm waits for all files to
undergo the conversion process to nodata" status before completing the operation.
In an asynchronous conversion, fsckptadm returns immediately and marks the
Storage Checkpoint as a nodata Storage Checkpoint even though the Storage
Checkpoint's data blocks are not immediately returned to the pool of free blocks in
the file system. The Storage Checkpoint deallocates all of its file data blocks in the
background and eventually returns them to the pool of free blocks in the file system.
390

391
If all of the older Storage Checkpoints in a file system are nodata Storage
Checkpoints, use the synchronous method to convert a data Storage Checkpoint
to a nodata Storage Checkpoint. If an older data Storage Checkpoint exists in the
file system, use the asynchronous method to mark the Storage Checkpoint you
want to convert for a delayed conversion. In this case, the actual conversion will
continue to be delayed until the Storage Checkpoint becomes the oldest Storage
Checkpoint in the file system, or all of the older Storage Checkpoints have been
converted to nodata Storage Checkpoints.
Note: You cannot convert a nodata Storage Checkpoint to a data Storage Checkpoint
because a nodata Storage Checkpoint only keeps track of the location of block
changes and does not save the content of file data blocks.
Showing the difference between a data and a nodata Storage

Checkpoint
The following example shows the difference between data Storage Checkpoints
and nodata Storage Checkpoints.
Note: A nodata Storage Checkpoint does not contain actual file data.
To show the difference between Storage Checkpoints
Create a file system and mount it on /mnt0, as in the following example:

# mkfs -t vxfs /dev/vx/rdsk/dg1/test0
version 10 layout
rcq size
4096 blocks
maxlink
supported
size
65536 blocks, largefiles supported
# mount -t vxfs /dev/vx/dsk/dg1/test0 /mnt0
Create a small file with a known content, as in the following example:

# echo "hello, world" > /mnt0/file

Create a Storage Checkpoint and mount it on /mnt0@5_30pm, as in the following

example:
# fsckptadm create ckpt@5_30pm /mnt0
# mkdir /mnt0@5_30pm
# mount -t vxfs -o ckpt=ckpt@5_30pm \
/dev/vx/dsk/dg1/test0:ckpt@5_30pm
/mnt0@5_30pm
Examine the content of the original file and the Storage Checkpoint file:
# cat /mnt0/file
hello, world
# cat /mnt0@5_30pm/file
hello, world
Change the content of the original file:

# echo "goodbye" > /mnt0/file
Examine the content of the original file and the Storage Checkpoint file. The
original file contains the latest data while the Storage Checkpoint file still
contains the data at the time of the Storage Checkpoint creation:
# cat /mnt0/file
goodbye
hello, world
392

Unmount the Storage Checkpoint, convert the Storage Checkpoint to a nodata

Storage Checkpoint, and mount the Storage Checkpoint again:
# umount /mnt0@5_30pm
# fsckptadm -s set nodata ckpt@5_30pm /mnt0
# mount -t vxfs -o ckpt=ckpt@5_30pm \
/dev/vx/dsk/dg1/test0:ckpt@5_30pm /mnt0@5_30pm
Examine the content of both files. The original file must contain the latest data:
# cat /mnt0/file
goodbye
You can traverse and read the directories of the nodata Storage Checkpoint;
however, the files contain no data, only markers to indicate which block of the
file has been changed since the Storage Checkpoint was created:
# ls -l /mnt0@5_30pm/file
-rw-r--r--
1 root
other 13 Jul 13 17:13 \
cat: /mnt0@5_30pm/file: Input/output error
Converting multiple Storage Checkpoints

You can convert Storage Checkpoints to nodata Storage Checkpoints when dealing
with older Storage Checkpoints on the same file system.
393

394
To convert multiple Storage Checkpoints
Create a file system and mount it on /mnt0:

# mkfs -t vxfs /dev/vx/rdsk/dg1/test0
version 10 layout
rcq size 4096 blocks
maxlink
supported
# mount -t vxfs /dev/vx/dsk/dg1/test0 /mnt0
Create four data Storage Checkpoints on this file system, note the order of
creation, and list them:
# fsckptadm create oldest /mnt0
# fsckptadm create older /mnt0
# fsckptadm create old /mnt0
# fsckptadm create latest /mnt0
/mnt0
latest:
ctime
mtime
flags
old:
ctime
mtime
flags
older:
ctime
mtime
flags
oldest:
ctime
mtime
flags
=
=
=
Mon 26 Jul 11:56:55 2004

Mon 26 Jul 11:56:55 2004
largefiles
=
=
=
Mon 26 Jul 11:56:51 2004

Mon 26 Jul 11:56:51 2004
largefiles
=
=
=
Mon 26 Jul 11:56:46 2004

Mon 26 Jul 11:56:46 2004
largefiles
=
=
=
Mon 26 Jul 11:56:41 2004

Mon 26 Jul 11:56:41 2004
largefiles

Try to convert synchronously the latest Storage Checkpoint to a nodata

Storage Checkpoint. The attempt will fail because the Storage Checkpoints
older than the latest Storage Checkpoint are data Storage Checkpoints,
namely the Storage Checkpoints old, older, and oldest:
# fsckptadm -s set nodata latest /mnt0
UX:vxfs fsckptadm: ERROR: V-3-24632: Storage Checkpoint
set failed on latest. File exists (17)
You can instead convert the latest Storage Checkpoint to a nodata Storage
Checkpoint in a delayed or asynchronous manner.
# fsckptadm set nodata latest /mnt0
List the Storage Checkpoints, as in the following example. You will see that
the latest Storage Checkpoint is marked for conversion in the future.
/mnt0
latest:
ctime
mtime
flags
old:
ctime
mtime
flags
older:
ctime
mtime
flags
oldest:
ctime
mtime
flags
= Mon 26 Jul 11:56:55 2004

= Mon 26 Jul 11:56:55
= nodata, largefiles, delayed
= Mon 26 Jul 11:56:51 2004
= Mon 26 Jul 11:56:51 2004
= largefiles
= Mon 26 Jul 11:56:46 2004
= Mon 26 Jul 11:56:46 2004
= largefiles
= Mon 26 Jul 11:56:41 2004
= Mon 26 Jul 11:56:41 2004
= largefiles
Creating a delayed nodata Storage Checkpoint

You can create a Storage Checkpoint as a delayed nodata Storage Checkpoint.
The creation process detects the presence of the older data Storage Checkpoints
and creates the Storage Checkpoint as a delayed nodata Storage Checkpoint. The
following example procedure removes an existing Storage Checkpoint named
395

latest and recreates the Storage Checkpoint as a delayed nodata Storage
Checkpoint.
To create a delayed nodata Storage Checkpoint
Remove the latest Storage Checkpoint.

# fsckptadm remove latest /mnt0
/mnt0
old:
ctime
mtime
flags
older:
ctime
mtime
flags
oldest:
ctime
mtime
flags
= Mon 26 Jul 11:56:51 2004

= Mon 26 Jul 11:56:51 2004
= largefiles
= Mon 26 Jul 11:56:46 2004
= Mon 26 Jul 11:56:46 2004
= largefiles
= Mon 26 Jul 11:56:41 2004
= Mon 26 Jul 11:56:41 2004
= largefiles
Recreate the latest Storage Checkpoint as a nodata Storage Checkpoint.

# fsckptadm -n create latest /mnt0
/mnt0
latest:
ctime
mtime
flags
old:
ctime
mtime
flags
older:
ctime
mtime
flags
oldest:
ctime
mtime
flags
= Mon 26 Jul 12:06:42 2004

= Mon 26 Jul 12:06:42 2004
= Mon 26 Jul 11:56:51 2004
= Mon 26 Jul 11:56:51 2004
= largefiles
= Mon 26 Jul 11:56:46 2004
= Mon 26 Jul 11:56:46 2004
= largefiles
= Mon 26 Jul 11:56:41 2004
= Mon 26 Jul 11:56:41 2004
= largefiles
396

Convert the oldest Storage Checkpoint to a nodata Storage Checkpoint

because no older Storage Checkpoints exist that contain data in the file system.
Note: This step can be done synchronously.
# fsckptadm -s set nodata oldest /mnt0
/mnt0
latest:
ctime
mtime
flags
old:
ctime
mtime
flags
older:
ctime
mtime
flags
oldest:
ctime
mtime
flags
= Mon 26 Jul 12:06:42 2004

= Mon 26 Jul 12:06:42 2004
= Mon 26 Jul 11:56:51 2004
= Mon 26 Jul 11:56:51 2004
= largefiles
= Mon 26 Jul 11:56:46 2004
= Mon 26 Jul 11:56:46 2004
= largefiles
= Mon 26 Jul 11:56:41 2004
= Mon 26 Jul 11:56:41 2004
397

Remove the older and old Storage Checkpoints.

# fsckptadm remove older /mnt0
# fsckptadm remove old /mnt0
/mnt0
latest:
ctime
mtime
flags
oldest:
ctime
mtime
flags
= Mon 26 Jul 12:06:42 2004

= Mon 26 Jul 12:06:42 2004
= Mon 26 Jul 11:56:41 2004
= Mon 26 Jul 11:56:41 2004
Note: After you remove the older and old Storage Checkpoints, the latest
Storage Checkpoint is automatically converted to a nodata Storage Checkpoint
because the only remaining older Storage Checkpoint (oldest) is already a
nodata Storage Checkpoint:
Enabling and disabling Storage Checkpoint visibility

You enable Storage Checkpoint visibility through the ckptautomnt mount option,
which can be set to one of three values: off, ro, or rw. Because enabling Storage
Checkpoint visibility prevents manual mounting of clones, the default value is off.
Setting the option to ro causes all clones to be automounted as read-only, while
rw causes all clones to be automounted as read/write.
If you take a Storage Checkpoint of an existing Storage Checkpoint (instead of the
primary file set), the directory for the source Storage Checkpoint in .checkpoint
functions as the mount point. For example, to take a Storage Checkpoint of the
Storage Checkpoint clone1 in a file system mounted on /mnt, use the following
command:
# fsckptadm create clone2 /mnt/.checkpoint/clone1
By default, Symantec Storage Foundation (SF) does not make inode numbers
unique. However, you can specify the uniqueino mount option to enable the use
of unique 64-bit inode numbers. You cannot change this option during a remount.
The following example enables Storage Checkpoint visibility by causing all clones
to be automounted as read/write:
398

Storage Checkpoint space management considerations
# mount -t vxfs -o ckptautomnt=rw /dev/vx/dsk/dg1/vol1 /mnt1
Storage Checkpoint space management

considerations
Several operations, such as removing or overwriting a file, can fail when a file
system containing Storage Checkpoints runs out of space. If the system cannot
allocate sufficient space, the operation will fail.
Database applications usually preallocate storage for their files and may not expect
a write operation to fail. During user operations such as create or mkdir, if the file
system runs out of space, removable Storage Checkpoints are deleted. This ensures
that applications can continue without interruptions due to lack of disk space.
Non-removable Storage Checkpoints are not automatically removed under such
ENOSPC conditions. Symantec recommends that you create only removable Storage
Checkpoints. However, during certain administrative operations, such as using the
fsadm command, using the qiomkfile command, and creating a Storage Checkpoint
with the fsckptadm command, even if the file system runs out of space, removable
Storage Checkpoints are not deleted.
When the kernel automatically removes the Storage Checkpoints, it applies the
following policies:
Remove as few Storage Checkpoints as possible to complete the operation.
Never select a non-removable Storage Checkpoint.
Select a nodata Storage Checkpoint only when data Storage Checkpoints no

longer exist.
Remove the oldest Storage Checkpoint first.
Remove a Storage Checkpoint even if it is mounted. New operations on such

a removed Storage Checkpoint fail with the appropriate error codes.
If the oldest Storage Checkpoint is non-removable, then the oldest removable

Storage Checkpoint is selected for removal. In such a case, data might be
required to be pushed to a non-removable Storage Checkpoint, which might fail
and result in the file system getting marked for a FULLFSCK. To prevent this
occurrence, Symantec recommends that you only create removable Storage
Checkpoints.

Mountable data Storage Checkpoints on a consistent and undamaged file system
can be used by backup and restore applications to restore either individual files or
399

an entire file system. Restoration from Storage Checkpoints can also help recover
incorrectly modified files, but typically cannot recover from hardware damage or
other file system integrity problems.
Note: For hardware or other integrity problems, Storage Checkpoints must be
supplemented by backups from other media.
Files can be restored by copying the entire file from a mounted Storage Checkpoint
back to the primary fileset. To restore an entire file system, you can designate a
mountable data Storage Checkpoint as the primary fileset using the fsckpt_restore
command.
See the fsckpt_restore(1M) manual page.
When using the fsckpt_restore command to restore a file system from a Storage
Checkpoint, all changes made to that file system after that Storage Checkpoint's
creation date are permanently lost. The only Storage Checkpoints and data
preserved are those that were created at the same time, or before, the selected
Storage Checkpoint's creation. The file system cannot be mounted at the time that
fsckpt_restore is invoked.
Note: Individual files can also be restored very efficiently by applications using the
fsckpt_fbmap(3) library function to restore only modified portions of a files data.
You can restore from a Storage Checkpoint only to a file system that has disk layout
Version 6 or later.
The following example restores a file, file1.txt, which resides in your home
directory, from the Storage Checkpoint CKPT1 to the device
/dev/vx/dsk/dg1/vol-01. The mount point for the device is /home.
To restore a file from a Storage Checkpoint
Create the Storage Checkpoint CKPT1 of /home.

$ fsckptadm create CKPT1 /home
Mount Storage Checkpoint CKPT1 on the directory /home/checkpoints/mar_4.

$ mount -t vxfs -o ckpt=CKPT1 /dev/vx/dsk/dg1/vol- \
01:CKPT1 /home/checkpoints/mar_4
400

Delete the file1.txt file from your home directory.

$ cd /home/users/me
$ rm file1.txt
Go to the /home/checkpoints/mar_4/users/me directory, which contains the

image of your home directory.
$ cd /home/checkpoints/mar_4/users/me
$ ls -l
-rw-r--r--
me
staff
14910
Mar 4
17:09
file1.txt
Copy the file file1.txt to your home directory.

$ cp file1.txt /home/users/me
$ cd /home/users/me
$ ls -l
-rw-r--r--
1 me
staff
14910
Mar 4
18:21
file1.txt
The following example restores a file system from the Storage Checkpoint CKPT3.
The filesets listed before the restoration show an unnamed root fileset and six
Storage Checkpoints.
U
N
N
A
M
E
D
C
K
P
T
6
C
K
P
T
5
C
K
P
T
4
C
K
P
T
3
C
K
P
T
2
C
K
P
T
1
401

To restore a file system from a Storage Checkpoint
Run the fsckpt_restore command:

# fsckpt_restore -l /dev/vx/dsk/dg1/vol2
/dev/vx/dsk/dg1/vol2:
UNNAMED:
ctime
= Thu 08 May 2004 06:28:26 PM PST
mtime
= Thu 08 May 2004 06:28:26 PM PST
flags
= largefiles, file system root
CKPT6:
ctime
= Thu 08 May 2004 06:28:35 PM PST
mtime
= Thu 08 May 2004 06:28:35 PM PST
flags
= largefiles
CKPT5:
ctime
= Thu 08 May 2004 06:28:34 PM PST
mtime
= Thu 08 May 2004 06:28:34 PM PST
flags
= largefiles, nomount
CKPT4:
ctime
= Thu 08 May 2004 06:28:33 PM PST
mtime
= Thu 08 May 2004 06:28:33 PM PST
flags
= largefiles
CKPT3:
ctime
= Thu 08 May 2004 06:28:36 PM PST
mtime
= Thu 08 May 2004 06:28:36 PM PST
flags
= largefiles
CKPT2:
ctime
mtime
flags
CKPT1:
ctime
mtime
flags
= Thu 08 May 2004 06:28:30 PM PST

= Thu 08 May 2004 06:28:30 PM PST
= largefiles
= Thu 08 May 2004 06:28:29 PM PST
= Thu 08 May 2004 06:28:29 PM PST
402

In this example, select the Storage Checkpoint CKPT3 as the new root fileset:
Select Storage Checkpoint for restore operation
or <Control/D> (EOF) to exit
or <Return> to list Storage Checkpoints: CKPT3
CKPT3:
ctime
= Thu 08 May 2004 06:28:31 PM PST
mtime
= Thu 08 May 2004 06:28:36 PM PST
flags
= largefiles
UX:vxfs fsckpt_restore: WARNING: V-3-24640: Any file system
changes or Storage Checkpoints made after
Thu 08 May 2004 06:28:31 PM PST will be lost.
403

Type y to restore the file system from CKPT3:

Restore the file system from Storage Checkpoint CKPT3 ?
(ynq) y
(Yes)
UX:vxfs fsckpt_restore: INFO: V-3-23760: File system
restored from CKPT3
If the filesets are listed at this point, it shows that the former UNNAMED root
fileset and CKPT6, CKPT5, and CKPT4 were removed, and that CKPT3 is now the
primary fileset. CKPT3 is now the fileset that will be mounted by default.
C
K
P
T
3
C
K
P
T
2
C
K
P
T
1
Run the fsckpt_restore command:

# fsckpt_restore -l /dev/vx/dsk/dg1/vol2
/dev/vx/dsk/dg1/vol2:
CKPT3:
ctime
= Thu 08 May 2004 06:28:31 PM PST
mtime
= Thu 08 May 2004 06:28:36 PM PST
flags
= largefiles, file system root
CKPT2:
ctime
= Thu 08 May 2004 06:28:30 PM PST
mtime
= Thu 08 May 2004 06:28:30 PM PST
flags
= largefiles
CKPT1:
ctime
= Thu 08 May 2004 06:28:29 PM PST
mtime
= Thu 08 May 2004 06:28:29 PM PST
flags
Select Storage Checkpoint for restore operation
or <Control/D> (EOF) to exit
or <Return> to list Storage Checkpoints:
404


VxFS provides options to the fsckptadm command interface to administer Storage
Checkpoint quotas. Storage Checkpoint quotas set the following limits on the amount
of space used by all Storage Checkpoints of a primary file set:
hard limit
An absolute limit that cannot be exceeded. If a hard limit is exceeded,

all further allocations on any of the Storage Checkpoints fail, but existing
Storage Checkpoints are preserved.
soft limit
Must be lower than the hard limit. If a soft limit is exceeded, no new
Storage Checkpoints can be created. The number of blocks used must
return below the soft limit before more Storage Checkpoints can be
created. An alert and console message are generated.
In case of a hard limit violation, various solutions are possible, enacted by specifying
or not specifying the -f option for the fsckptadm utility.
Specifying or not specifying the -f option has the following effects:
If the -f option is not specified, one or many removable Storage Checkpoints

are deleted to make space for the operation to succeed. This is the default
solution.
If the -f option is specified, all further allocations on any of the Storage

Checkpoints fail, but existing Storage Checkpoints are preserved.
Note: Sometimes if a file is removed while it is opened by another process, the
removal process is deferred until the last close. Because the removal of a file
may trigger pushing data to a downstream" Storage Checkpoint (that is, the
next older Storage Checkpoint), a fileset hard limit quota violation may occur.
In this scenario, the hard limit is relaxed to prevent an inode from being marked
bad. This is also true for some asynchronous inode operations.
405
Chapter
18
Administering FileSnaps
FileSnap creation
Using FileSnaps
Using FileSnaps to create point-in-time copies of files
Comparison of the logical size output of the fsadm -S shared, du, and df
commands
FileSnap creation
A single thread creating FileSnaps of the same file can create over ten thousand
snapshots per minute. FileSnaps can be used for fast provisioning of new virtual
machines by cloning a virtual machine golden image, where the golden image is
stored as a file in a VxFS file system or Symantec Storage Foundation Cluster File
System High Availability (SFCFSHA) file system, which is used as a data store for
a virtual environment.
FileSnap creation over Network File System

You can create a FileSnap over Network File System (NFS) by creating a hard link
from an existing file to a new file with the extension ::snap:vxfs:. For example, the
following command creates a new file named file1, but instead of making file1
a hard link of file2, file1 will be a FileSnap so that the link count of file2 will
not change:
# ln file1 file2::snap:vxfs:
This is the equivalent of using the following command:

# vxfilesnap -p file1 file2
Using FileSnaps
The new file has the same attributes as the old file and shares all of the old file's
extents.
An application that uses this namespace extension should check if the file created
has the namespace extension, such as file1::snap:vxfs: instead of file1. This
indicates the namespace extension is not supported, either because the file system
exported over NFS is not VxFS, the file system is an older version of VxFS, or the
file system does not have a license for FileSnaps.
As with the vxfilesnap command, FileSnaps must be made within a single file set.
Using FileSnaps
Table 18-1 provides a list of Veritas File System (VxFS) commands that enable
you to administer FileSnaps.
Table 18-1
Command
Functionality
fiostat
The fiostat command has the -S shared option to display statistics

for each interval. Otherwise, the command displays the accumulated
statistics for the entire time interval.
fsadm
The fsadm command has the -S option to report shared block usage
in the file system. You can use this option to find out the storage savings
achieved through FileSnaps and how much real storage is required if
all of the files are full copies.
fsmap
The fsmap command has the -c option to report the count of the total
number of physical blocks consumed by a file, and how many of those
blocks might not be private to a given file.
See the fsmap(1) manual page.
mkfs
Use the mkfs command to make a disk layout Version 10 file system
by specifying -o version=10. VxFS internally maintains a list of
delayed operations on shared extent references and the size of this list
(rcqsize) defaults to a value that is a function of the file system size,
but can be changed when the file system is made.
See the mkfs_vxfs(1M) manual page.
407
Table 18-1
(continued)
Command
Functionality
vxfilesnap
Use the vxfilesnap command to create a snapshot of a file or set of

files or files in a directory. You can also use the vxfilesnap command
to restore a older version of the file to the current file.
See the vxfilesnap(1) manual page.
vxtunefs
The vxtunefs command supports an option to enable lazy

copy-on-write tuneable, lazy_copyonwrite, on the file system, for
better performance.
See the vxtunefs(1M) manual page.

The key to obtaining maximum performance with FileSnaps is to minimize the
copy-on-write overhead. You can achieved this by enabling lazy copy-on-write.
Lazy copy-on-write is easy to enable and usually results in significantly better
performance. If lazy copy-on-write is not a viable option for the use case under
consideration, an efficient allocation of the source file can reduce the need of
copy-on-write.
Using FileSnaps to provision virtual desktops

Virtual desktop infrastructure (VDI) operating system boot images are a good use
case for FileSnaps. The parts of the boot images that can change are user profile,
page files (or swap for UNIX/Linux) and application data. You should separate such
data from boot images to minimize unsharing. You should allocate a single extent
to the master boot image file.
The following example uses a 4 GB master boot image that has a single extent that
will be shared by all snapshots.
# touch /vdi_images/master_image
# /opt/VRTS/bin/setext -r 4g -f chgsize /vdi_images/master_image
The master_image file can be presented as a disk device to the virtual machine for
installing the operating system. Once the operating system is installed and
configured, the file is ready for snapshots.
408
Using FileSnaps to optimize write intensive applications for virtual

machines
When virtual machines are spawned to perform certain tasks that are write intensive,
a significant amount of unsharing can take place. Symantec recommends that you
optimize performance by enabling lazy copy-on-write. If the use case does not allow
enabling lazy copy-on-write, with careful planning, you can reduce the occurrence
of unsharing. The easiest way to reduce unsharing is to separate the application
data to a file other than the boot image. If you cannot do this due to the nature of
your applications, then you can take actions similar to the following example.
Assume that the disk space required for a boot image and the application data is
20 GB. Out of this, only 4 GB is used by the operating system and the remaining
16 GB is the space for applications to write. Any data or binaries that are required
by each instance of the virtual machine can still be part of the first 4 GB of the
shared extent. Since most of the writes are expected to take place on the 16 GB
portion, you should allocate the master image in such a way that the 16 GB of space
is not shared, as shown in the following commands:
# touch /vdi_images/master_image
# /opt/VRTS/bin/setext -r 4g -f chgsize /vdi_images/master_image
# dd if=/dev/zero of=/vdi_images/master_image seek=16777215 \
bs=1024 count=1
The last command creates a 16 GB hole at the end of the file. Since holes do not
have any extents allocated, the writes to hole do not need to be unshared.
Using FileSnaps to create multiple copies of data instantly

It is common to create one or more copies of production data for the purpose of
generating reports, mining, and testing. These cases frequently update the copies
of the data with the most current data, and one or more copies of the data always
exists. FileSnaps can be used to create multiple copies instantly. The application
that uses the original data can see a slight performance hit due to the unsharing of
data that can take place during updates. This slight impact on performance can still
be present even when all FileSnaps have been deleted. However, you rarely see
all FileSnaps being deleted since these use cases usually have one or more copies
at any given time.
An example to perform FileSnap

An example to perform FileSnap is as follows:
# vxfilesnap tfile1 stfile1
# ls -ltr
409
Comparison of the logical size output of the fsadm -S shared, du, and df commands
total 1108
drwxr-xr-x
-rw-r--r--rw-r--r--
2 root
1 root
1 root
root
root
root
96
282686
282686
Jul
Jul
Jul
6 00:41 lost+found
6 00:43 tfile1
6 00:44 stfile1
# ls -ltri
total 1108
3 drwxr-xr-x
4 -rw-r--r-5 -rw-r--r--
2 root
1 root
1 root
root
root
root
96 Jul
282686 Jul
282686 Jul
6 00:41 lost+found
6 00:43 tfile1
6 00:44 stfile1
Comparison of the logical size output of the fsadm

-S shared, du, and df commands
The fsadm -S shared, du, and df commands report different values for the size
of a FileSnap. The fsadm -S shared command displays this size as the "logical
size," which is the logical space consumed, in kilobytes, and accounts for both
exclusive blocks and shared blocks. This value represents the actual disk space
needed if the file system did not have any shared blocks. The value from the fsadm
-S shared command differs from the output of du -sk command since the du
command does not track the blocks consumed by VxFS structural files. As a result,
the output of the du -sk command is less than the logical size output reported by
the fsadm -S shared command.
The following examples show output from the fsadm -S shared, du, and df
commands:
# mkfs -t vxfs /dev/vx/rdsk/dg/vol3
version 10 layout
rcq size
4096 blocks
maxlink
supported
# mount -t vxfs /dev/vx/dsk/dg/vol3 /mnt
# df -k /mnt
Filesystem
1K-blocks
/dev/vx/dsk/dg1/vol3 52428800
Used
83590
Available Use% Mounted on

49073642 1%
/mnt
# /opt/VRTS/bin/fsadm -S shared /mnt

Mountpoint
/mnt
Size(KB)
52428800
Available(KB)
49073642
Used(KB)
83590
Logical_Size(KB) Space_Saved(KB)
83590
0
410
Comparison of the logical size output of the fsadm -S shared, du, and df commands
# du -sk /mnt
0
/mnt
# dd if=/dev/zero of=/mnt/foo bs=1024 count=10

10+0 records in
10+0 records out
10240 bytes (10 kB) copied, 0.018901 seconds, 542 kB/s
# vxfilesnap /mnt/foo /mnt/foo.snap
# df -k /mnt
Filesystem
1K-blocks
/dev/vx/dsk/dg1/vol3 52428800
Used
83600
Available Use% Mounted on

49073632 1%
/mnt
# /opt/VRTS/bin/fsadm -S shared /mnt

Mountpoint
/mnt
# du -sk /mnt
20
/mnt
Size(KB)
52428800
Available(KB)
49073632
Used(KB)
83600
Logical_Size(KB) Space_Saved(KB)
83610
10
411
Chapter
19
Administering snapshot file

systems
Snapshot file system backups
Snapshot file system performance
About snapshot file system disk structure
Differences between snapshots and Storage Checkpoints
Creating a snapshot file system
Snapshot file system backups

After a snapshot file system is created, the snapshot maintains a consistent backup
of data in the snapped file system.
Backup programs, such as cpio, that back up a standard file system tree can be
used without modification on a snapshot file system because the snapshot presents
the same data as the snapped file system. Backup programs, such as vxdump, that
access the disk structures of a file system require some modifications to handle a
snapshot file system.
VxFS utilities recognize snapshot file systems and modify their behavior so that
they operate the same way on snapshots as they do on standard file systems. Other
backup programs that typically read the raw disk image cannot work on snapshots
without altering the backup procedure.
These other backup programs can use the fscat command to obtain a raw image
of the entire file system that is identical to an image obtainable by running a dd
command on the disk device containing the snapped file system at the exact moment
Administering snapshot file systems

the snapshot was created. The snapread ioctl takes arguments similar to those of
the read system call and returns the same results that are obtainable by performing
a read on the disk device containing the snapped file system at the exact time the
snapshot was created. In both cases, however, the snapshot file system provides
a consistent image of the snapped file system with all activity completeit is an
instantaneous read of the entire file system. This is much different than the results
that would be obtained by a dd or read command on the disk device of an active
file system.

Snapshot file systems maximize the performance of the snapshot at the expense
of writes to the snapped file system. Reads from a snapshot file system typically
perform at nearly the throughput rates of reads from a standard VxFS file system.
The performance of reads from the snapped file system are generally not affected.
However, writes to the snapped file system, typically average two to three times as
long as without a snapshot. This is because the initial write to a data block requires
reading the old data, writing the data to the snapshot, and then writing the new data
to the snapped file system. If there are multiple snapshots of the same snapped
file system, writes are even slower. Only the initial write to a block experiences this
delay, so operations such as writes to the intent log or inode updates proceed at
normal speed after the initial write.
Reads from the snapshot file system are impacted if the snapped file system is
busy because the snapshot reads are slowed by the disk I/O associated with the
snapped file system.
The overall impact of the snapshot is dependent on the read to write ratio of an
application and the mixing of the I/O operations. For example, a database application
running an online transaction processing (OLTP) workload on a snapped file system
was measured at about 15 to 20 percent slower than a file system that was not
snapped.
About snapshot file system disk structure

A snapshot file system consists of:
A super-block
A bitmap
A blockmap
Data blocks copied from the snapped file system
413

The following figure shows the disk structure of a snapshot file system.
Figure 19-1
The Snapshot Disk Structure

super-block
bitmap
blockmap
data block
The super-block is similar to the super-block of a standard VxFS file system, but
the magic number is different and many of the fields are not applicable.
The bitmap contains one bit for every block on the snapped file system. Initially, all
bitmap entries are zero. A set bit indicates that the appropriate block was copied
from the snapped file system to the snapshot. In this case, the appropriate position
in the blockmap references the copied block.
The blockmap contains one entry for each block on the snapped file system. Initially,
all entries are zero. When a block is copied from the snapped file system to the
snapshot, the appropriate entry in the blockmap is changed to contain the block
number on the snapshot file system that holds the data from the snapped file system.
The data blocks are filled by data copied from the snapped file system, starting
from the beginning of the data block area.
Differences between snapshots and Storage

Checkpoints
While snapshots and Storage Checkpoints both create a point-in-time image of a
file system and only the changed data blocks are updated, there are significant
differences between the two technologies:
Table 19-1
Snapshots
Storage Checkpoints
Require a separate device for storage
Reside on the same device as the original file

system
414

Table 19-1
Differences between snapshots and Storage Checkpoints (continued)
Snapshots
Storage Checkpoints
Are read-only
Can be read-only or read-write
Are transient
Are persistent
Cease to exist after being unmounted
Can exist and be mounted on their own
Track changed blocks on the file system level Track changed blocks on each file in the file
system
Storage Checkpoints also serve as the enabling technology for two other Veritas
features: Block-Level Incremental Backups and Storage Rollback, which are used
extensively for backing up databases.
See About Storage Checkpoints on page 385.

You create a snapshot file system by using the -o snapof= option of the mount
command. The -o snapsize= option may also be required if the device you are
mounting does not identify the device size in its disk label, or if you want a size
smaller than the entire device.
You must make the snapshot file system large enough to hold any blocks on the
snapped file system that may be written to while the snapshot file system exists. If
a snapshot runs out of blocks to hold copied data, the snapshot is disabled and
further attempts to access the snapshot file system fail.
During periods of low activity (such as nights and weekends), a snapshot typically
requires about two to six percent of the blocks of the snapped file system. During
a period of high activity, the snapshot of a typical file system may require 15 percent
of the blocks of the snapped file system. Most file systems do not turn over 15
percent of data in a single day. These approximate percentages tend to be lower
for larger file systems and higher for smaller file systems. You can allocate blocks
to a snapshot based on characteristics such as file system usage and duration of
backups.
Warning: Any existing data on the device used for the snapshot is overwritten.
415

To create a snapshot file system
Mount the file system with the -o snapof= option:

# mount -t vxfs -o ro,snapof=/ \
snapped_mount_point_mnt, snapsize=snapshot_size \
/dev/vx/dsk/diskgrp/volume snapshot_mount_point
In the following examples, the vxdump utility is used to ascertain whether

/dev/rdsk/fsvol/vol1 is a snapshot mounted as /backup/home and does the
appropriate work to get the snapshot data through the mount point.
These are typical examples of making a backup of a 300,000 block file system
named /home using a snapshot file system on a Volume Manager volume with a
snapshot mount point of /backup/home.
Example of creating a backup using a snapshop file system
To back up files changed within the last week using cpio:

# mount -t vxfs -o snapof=/home,snapsize=100000 \
/dev/vx/dsk/fsvol/vol1 /backup/home
# cd /backup
# find home -ctime -7 -depth -print | cpio -oc > /dev/st1
# umount /backup/home
To do a level 3 backup of /dev/vx/rdsk/fsvol/vol1 and collect those files

that have changed in the current directory:
# vxdump 3f - /dev/vx/rdsk/fsvol/vol1 | vxrestore -xf -
To do a full backup of /home, which exists on disk /dev/vx/rdsk/fsvol/vol1,

and use dd to control blocking of output onto tape device using vxdump:
# mount -t vxfs -o snapof=/home,snapsize=100000 \
/dev/vx/dsk/fsvol/vol1 /backup/home
# vxdump f - /dev/vx/rdsk/fsvol/vol1 | dd bs=128k > /dev/st1
416
Section
Optimizing storage with

Storage Foundation
Chapter 20. Understanding storage optimization solutions in Storage Foundation
Chapter 21. Migrating data from thick storage to thin storage
Chapter 22. Maintaining Thin Storage with Thin Reclamation
Chapter
20
Understanding storage
optimization solutions in
Storage Foundation
About thin provisioning
About thin optimization solutions in Storage Foundation
About SmartMove
About the Thin Reclamation feature
About reclaiming space on Solid State Devices (SSDs) with the TRIM operation
Determining when to reclaim space on a thin reclamation LUN
How automatic reclamation works
About thin provisioning

Thin provisioning is a storage array feature that optimizes storage use by allocating
and reclaiming the storage on demand. With thin provisioning, the array allocates
storage to applications only when the storage is needed, from a pool of free storage.
Thin provisioning solves the problem of under-utilization of available array capacity.
Administrators do not have to estimate how much storage an application requires.
Instead, thin provisioning lets administrators provision large thin or thin reclaim
capable LUNs to a host. When the application writes data, the physical storage is
allocated from the free pool on the array to the thin-provisioned LUNs.
Understanding storage optimization solutions in Storage Foundation

About thin optimization solutions in Storage Foundation
The two types of thin provisioned LUNs are thin-capable or thin-reclaim capable.
Both types of LUNs provide the capability to allocate storage as needed from the
free pool. For example, storage is allocated when a file system creates or changes
a file. However, this storage is not released to the free pool when files get deleted.
Therefore, thin-provisioned LUNs can become 'thick' over time, as the file system
starts to include unused free space where the data was deleted. Thin-reclaim
capable LUNs address this problem with the ability to release the once-used storage
to the pool of free storage. This operation is called thin storage reclamation.
The thin-reclaim capable LUNs do not perform the reclamation automatically. The
server using the LUNs must initiate the reclamation. The administrator can initiate
a reclamation manually, or with a scheduled reclamation operation.
Storage Foundation provides several features to support thin provisioning and thin
reclamation, and to optimize storage use on thin provisioned arrays.
See About SmartMove on page 420.
About thin optimization solutions in Storage

Foundation
Array-based options like Thin Storage and Thin Provisioning help storage
administrators to meet the challenges in managing their storage. These challenges
include provisioning the storage, migrating data to maximize storage utilization, and
maintaining the optimum storage utilization. Several features of Storage Foundation
work together with the array functionality to solve these challenges.
Table 20-1 lists the Storage Foundation features and benefits relating to thin storage.
Table 20-1
Thin storage solutions in Storage Foundation
Feature
Description
Benefits
SmartMove
The SmartMove feature

Maximizes use of thin
moves or copies only blocks storage.
in use by the Veritas File
See About SmartMove
System
on page 420.
Improves performance for
copy operations.
Enables migration from thick
LUNs to thin provisioned
LUNs.
See Migrating to thin
provisioning on page 425.
419

About SmartMove
Table 20-1
Thin storage solutions in Storage Foundation (continued)
Feature
Description
Benefits
Thin disk discovery
Storage Foundation provides Recognizes and displays thin

discovery for thin storage
attributes for thin disks.
devices.
Thin Reclamation
Thin reclamation commands Improves storage utilization

enable you to reclaim space and savings.
on a file system, disk, disk
See About the Thin
group, or enclosure level.
Reclamation feature
on page 421.
About SmartMove
Storage Foundation provides the SmartMove utility to optimize move and copy
operations. The SmartMove utility leverages the knowledge that Veritas File System
(VxFS) has of the Veritas Volume Manager (VxVM) storage. VxFS lets VxVM know
which blocks have data. When VxVM performs an operation that copies or moves
data, SmartMove enables the operation to only copy or move the blocks used by
the file system. This capability improves performance for synchronization, mirroring,
and copying operations because it reduces the number of blocks that are copied.
SmartMove only works with VxFS file systems that are mounted on VxVM volumes.
If a file system is not mounted, the utility has no visibility into the usage on the file
system.
SmartMove is not used for volumes that have instant snapshots.
The SmartMove operation also can be used to migrate data from thick storage to
thin-provisioned storage. Because SmartMove copies only blocks that are in use
by the file system, the migration process results in a thin-provisioned LUN.
SmartMove for thin provisioning

Storage Foundation uses the SmartMove feature for thin provisioning. SmartMove
enables you to migrate storage from thick storage to thin storage. SmartMove
provides the ability to maintain the intent of thin provisioning.
Without SmartMove, synchronization between disks copies the entire storage that
is allocated to Veritas File System (VxFS) and Veritas Volume Manager (VxVM).
Synchronizing or resynchronizing a volume, plex, or subdisk can lead to unused
space being allocated on the thin disk. Over time, normal operations cause the
storage to become thick. With SmartMove, the disk synchronization copies only
blocks that are actually in use at the file system level. This behavior prevents unused
420

space from being allocated when a disk is synchronized or resynchronized. The

disks stay thin.
The SmartMove feature is enabled for all disks by default. To take advantage of
thin provisioning, SmartMove must be enabled at least for thin disks.

Symantec Storage Foundation supports reclamation of the unused storage on
thin-reclamation capable arrays. Storage Foundation automatically discovers LUNs
that support thin reclamation.
A Veritas File System (VxFS) file system can be mounted on a Veritas Volume
Manager (VxVM) volume that is backed by a thin-capable array. The size of the
VxVM volume is a virtual size, that is backed by the free storage pool. When files
are created or changed, storage is physically allocated to the file system from the
array. If the files on the file system are deleted or shrunk in size, the space is freed
from the file system usage. However, the space is not removed from the physical
allocation. Over time, the physical space allocated to the file system is greater than
the actual space used by the file system. The thin LUN eventually becomes 'thick',
as the physical space allocated nears the size of the LUN.
The Thin Reclamation feature provides the ability to release this unused space
back to the free pool. Storage Foundation uses the VxFS allocation tables to identify
unused blocks. VxVM maps this information about unused blocks down to the disk,
enabling VxVM to return those blocks to the free pool. If the VxFS file system is not
mounted, VxVM has no visibility into the file system usage. Therefore, it is critical
that the file system is mounted when you perform a reclamation. The operation of
reclamation can be done on a disk group, LUN, enclosure, or file system.
VxVM reclaims space automatically when you delete a volume or remove a plex.
The automatic reclamation is asynchronous, so that the space is not reclaimed at
the array level immediately. The disk is marked as pending reclamation. You cannot
remove a disk from VxVM until the reclamation completes. You can control the
timing and frequency of the automatic reclamation.
About reclaiming space on Solid State Devices (SSDs)

with the TRIM operation
File systems that create and remove files often reuse storage blocks by overwriting
a storage block with new contents. A Solid State Drive (SSD) device cannot overwrite
a block of storage without erasing it first. This behavior causes a performance cost
for writes to the previously used blocks, when compared to writes to unused or
erased blocks. To avoid this cost, the TRIM operation informs the SSD which blocks
421

Determining when to reclaim space on a thin reclamation LUN
of data are no longer in use and can be erased. The SSDs erase the unused blocks
before the blocks are required for reuse, which improves the performance of the
future write I/Os to the SSD. The TRIM operation also reduces wear leveling and
fragmentation, because unused blocks are erased. The unused data does not get
moved during a garbage collection or a cleaning cycle.
In this release, SF supports the TRIM operation for Fusion-io devices for Red Hat
Linux 6.0 (RHEL6) and SUSE Linux Enterprise Server 11 (SLES11).
See the Fusion-io documentation for the firmware version requirements for TRIM
support.
The SF components, Veritas File System (VxFS) and Veritas Volume Manager
(VxVM), use the TRIM operation to free up the blocks that do not contain valid data.
The TRIM capability is similar to thin reclamation, and is performed with the same
commands. The default SF reclamation commands perform TRIM for SSDs and
thin reclamation for Thin Reclaimable LUNs. For file systems and volumes that use
both SSDs and Thin Reclaimable LUNs, you can choose whether SF performs only
a TRIM operation, only a thin reclamation, or both.
See Reclaiming space on a disk, disk group, or enclosure on page 438.
See Reclaiming space on a file system on page 436.
To display information about SSDs, use the vxdisk -o ssd list command. SF
can also discover and display the disk space usage for Veritas File System (VxFS)
file systems on SSDs. The VxFS file systems must be mounted on Veritas Volume
Manager (VxVM) volumes. Use the vxdisk -o ssd -o fssize list command.
Determining when to reclaim space on a thin

reclamation LUN
When a thin LUN is used as a Veritas Volume Manager disk, the space is allocated
only on an application write. Storage space is allocated from the free pool when
files are created and written to in the file system. However, this storage is not
automatically released to the free pool when data is deleted from a file system. As
a result, all thin LUNs have a tendency to become thicker over time, with increased
amounts of wasted storage (storage that is allocated but does not support application
data).
As a storage administrator, you need to determine when to trigger the thin
reclamation. The thin reclamation process can be time consuming, depending on
various factors such as the size and fragmentation of the file system. The decision
422

is a balance between how much space can be reclaimed, and how much time the
reclaim operation will take.
The following considerations may apply:
For a VxFS file system mounted on a VxVM volume, compare the file system
usage to the actual physical allocation size to determine if a reclamation is
desirable. If the file system usage is much smaller than the physical allocation
size, it indicates that a lot of space can potentially be reclaimed. You may want
to trigger a file system reclamation. If the file system usage is close to the
physical allocation size, it indicates that the physical allocation is being used
well. You may not want to trigger a reclamation.
See Displaying VxFS file system usage on thin reclamation LUNs on page 434.
The array may provide notification when the storage pool usage has reached a
certain threshold. You can evaluate whether you can reclaim space with Storage
Foundation to free more space in the storage pool.
Deleted volumes are reclaimed automatically. You can customize the schedule
for automatic reclamation.
See Configuring automatic reclamation on page 442.

On thin-reclamable arrays, storage that is no longer in use needs to be reclaimed
by the array. Storage Foundation automatically reclaims the space on the array for
certain admimistrative operations, as follows:
Deleting a volume.
Removing a mirror.
Shrinking a volume.
Removing a log.
Creating or growing a volume with the init=zero option.
The process of reclaiming storage on an array can be intense on the array. To avoid
any effect on regular I/O's to the array, Storage Foundation performs the reclaim
operation asynchronously. The disk is flagged as pending reclamation. The vxrelocd
(or recovery) daemon asynchronously reclaims the disks marked for reclamation
at a future time. By default, the vxrelocd daemon runs every day at 22:10 hours,
and reclaims storage on the deleted volumes or plexes that are one day old.
To display the disks that are pending reclamation, use the following command:
# vxprint -z
423

You can configure the automatic reclamation to reclaim immediately, or to schedule

the asynchronous reclamation.
See Configuring automatic reclamation on page 442.
You can also trigger a reclamation manually for a disk, disk group or enclosure.
This operation also reclaims any disks flagged as pending reclamation.
424
Chapter
21
Migrating data from thick

storage to thin storage
About using SmartMove to migrate to Thin Storage
Migrating to thin provisioning
About using SmartMove to migrate to Thin Storage

If you have existing data on a thick LUN, the SmartMove feature enables you to
migrate the data to a thin LUN. The migration process copies only the blocks in use
by the Veritas File System (VxFS) to the thin LUN. The SmartMove feature leverages
the Veritas File System (VxFS) information about which blocks in a Veritas Volume
Manager (VxVM) volume contain data. Therefore, the migration functionality is
available only when a VxVM volume is on a mounted VxFS file system.
To migrate the data to the thin LUN, follow the recommended procedure.
See Migrating to thin provisioning on page 425.

The SmartMove feature enables migration from traditional LUNs to thinly
provisioned LUNs, removing unused space in the process.
Migrating data from thick storage to thin storage

To migrate to thin provisioning
Check if the SmartMove feature is enabled.

# vxdefault list
KEYWORD
usefssmartmove
...
CURRENT-VALUE
all
DEFAULT-VALUE
all
If the output shows that the current value is none, configure SmartMove for all
disks or thin disks.
See Configuring SmartMove on page 614.
Add the new, thin LUNs to the existing disk group. Enter the following
commands:
# vxdisksetup -i da_name
# vxdg -g datadg adddisk da_name
where da_name is the disk access name in VxVM.
To identify LUNs with the thinonly or thinrclm attributes, enter:

# vxdisk -o thin list
Add the new, thin LUNs as a new plex to the volume. On a thin LUN, when
you create a mirrored volume or add a mirror to an existing LUN, VxVM creates
a Data Change Object (DCO) by default. The DCO helps prevent the thin LUN
from becoming thick, by eliminating the need for full resynchronization of the
mirror.
NOTE: The VxFS file system must be mounted to get the benefits of the
SmartMove feature.
The following methods are available to add the LUNs:
Use the default settings for the vxassist command:

# vxassist -g datadg mirror datavol da_name
Specify the vxassist command options for faster completion. The -b option
copies blocks in the background. The following command improves I/O
throughput:
# vxassist -b -oiosize=1m -t thinmig -g datadg mirror \
datavol da_name
To view the status of the command, use the vxtask command:
426

427
# vxtask list
TASKID PTID TYPE/STATE
PCT
PROGRESS
211
ATCOPY/R 10.64% 0/20971520/2232320 PLXATT vol1 vol1-02 xivdg smartmove
212
219
# vxtask monitor 211

TASKID PTID TYPE/STATE
PCT
PROGRESS
211
ATCOPY/R 50.00% 0/20971520/10485760 PLXATT vol1 vol1-02
211
211
211
211
211
xivdg
xivdg
xivdg
xivdg
xivdg
xivdg
smartmove
smartmove
smartmove
smartmove
smartmove
smartmove
Specify the vxassist command options to reduce the effect on system

performance. The following command takes longer to complete:
# vxassist -oslow -g datadg mirror datavol da_name
Optionally, test the performance of the new LUNs before removing the old
LUNs.
To test the performance, use the following steps:
Determine which plex corresponds to the thin LUNs:

# vxprint -g datadg
TY
dg
dm
dm
NAME
datadg
THINARRAY0_02
STDARRAY1_01
ASSOC
datadg
THINARRAY0_02
STDARRAY1_01
KSTATE
-
LENGTH
83886080
41943040
PLOFFS
-
STATE
-OHOTUSE
TUTIL0 PUTIL0
-
v
pl
sd
pl
sd
datavol
datavol-01
STDARRAY1_01-01
datavol-02
THINARRAY0_02-01
fsgen
datavol
datavol-01
datavol
datavol-02
ENABLED
ENABLED
ENABLED
ENABLED
ENABLED
41943040
41943040
41943040
41943040
41943040
0
0
ACTIVE
ACTIVE
ACTIVE
-
The example output indicates that the thin LUN corresponds to plex
datavol-02.
Direct all reads to come from those LUNs:

# vxvol -g datadg rdpol prefer datavol datavol-02

Remove the original non-thin LUNs.

Note: The ! character is a special character in some shells. This example shows
how to escape it in a bash shell.
# vxassist -g datadg remove mirror datavol \!STDARRAY1_01
# vxdg -g datadg rmdisk STDARRAY1_01
# vxdisk rm STDARRAY1_01
Grow the file system and volume to use all of the larger thin LUN:
# vxresize -g datadg -x datavol 40g da_name
428
Chapter
22
Maintaining Thin Storage

with Thin Reclamation
Reclamation of storage on thin reclamation arrays
Identifying thin and thin reclamation LUNs
Displaying VxFS file system usage on thin reclamation LUNs
Reclaiming space on a file system
Reclaiming space on a disk, disk group, or enclosure
About the reclamation log file
Monitoring Thin Reclamation using the vxtask command
Configuring automatic reclamation

Symantec Storage Foundation supports reclamation of the unused storage on
thin-reclamation capable arrays and LUNs. Storage Foundation can reclaim blocks
in a Veritas File System (VxFS) file system that is mounted on a Veritas Volume
Manager (VxVM) volume.
The thin reclamation feature is supported only for LUNs that have the thinrclm
attribute. VxVM automatically discovers LUNs that support thin reclamation from
thin capable storage arrays. You can list devices that are known to have the thin
or thinrclm attributes on the host.
See Identifying thin and thin reclamation LUNs on page 431.
Maintaining Thin Storage with Thin Reclamation

For a list of the storage arrays that support thin reclamation, see the Symantec
Hardware Compatibility List (HCL):
Thin reclamation is not supported for boot devices.
You can use the thin reclamation feature in the following ways:
Space is reclaimed automatically when a volume is deleted. Because it is

asynchronous, you may not see the reclaimed space immediately.
Perform the reclamation operation on a disk group, LUN, or enclosure using the
vxdisk command.
Perform the reclamation operation on a Veritas File System (VxFS) file system
using the fsadm command.
See Reclaiming space on a file system on page 436.
About Thin Reclamation of a disk, a disk group, or an enclosure

Storage Foundation provides the ability to reclaim unused space on thin-provisioned
arrays, without needing to stop application I/O. The Veritas File System (VxFS) file
system must be mounted.
You can trigger thin reclamation on one or more disks, disk groups, or enclosures.
The reclamation process scans the specified storage for the VxVM volumes that
have a mounted VxFS file system. Each volume is analyzed for any previously
allocated space that the VxFS file system no longer uses. The unused space is
released to the free storage pool on the thin array. The reclamation skips any
volumes that do not have a mounted VxFS file system. The reclamation process
also releases the space for any volumes or plexes that are marked as pending
reclamation.
By default, the reclamation command also performs the TRIM operation if the
specified storage is on Solid State Devices (SSDs).
See About reclaiming space on Solid State Devices (SSDs) with the TRIM
operation on page 421.
A full reclamation process also scans the specified storage for free space that is
outside of the VxVM volumes.
Thin reclamation does not reclaim space on a volume that is part of an instant
snapshot hierarchy.
Thin Reclamation takes a considerable amount of time when you reclaim thin storage
on a large number of LUNs or an enclosure or disk group. As with other long-running
430

operations, VxVM creates a task for a reclaim operation. You can monitor the reclaim
operation with the vxtask command.
See Monitoring Thin Reclamation using the vxtask command on page 441.
About Thin Reclamation of a file system

Veritas File System (VxFS) supports reclamation of free storage on a Thin Storage
LUN. Free storage is reclaimed using the fsadm command. You can perform the
default reclamation or aggressive reclamation. If you used a file system for a long
time and must perform reclamation on the file system, Symantec recommends that
you run aggressive reclamation. Aggressive reclamation compacts the allocated
blocks, which creates larger free blocks that can potentially be reclaimed.
Thin Reclamation is only supported on file systems mounted on a VxVM volume.
Thin Reclamation is not supported for file systems mounted on RAID5 volumes.
Veritas File System also supports reclamation of a portion of the file system using
the vxfs_ts_reclaim() API.
See the vxfs_ts_reclaim(3) manual page and the Veritas File System
Programmer's Reference Guide.
Note: Thin Reclamation is a slow process and may take several hours to complete,
depending on the file system size. Thin Reclamation is not guaranteed to reclaim
100% of the free space.
You can track the progress of the Thin Reclamation process by using the vxtask
list command when using the Veritas Volume Manager (VxVM) command vxdisk
reclaim.
See the vxtask(1M) and vxdisk(1M) manual pages.
You can administer Thin Reclamation using VxVM commands.

Using Symantec Dynamic Multi-Pathing (DMP), Storage Foundation automatically
discovers thin devices that have been recognized on the host as thin or thinrclm.
DMP uses the Veritas array support libraries (ASLs) to recognize vendor-specific
thin attributes and claim devices accordingly as thin or thinclm.
Thin devices that are classified as thin are capable of thin provisioning. Veritas
Thin Reclamation only works on devices with the thinrclm attribute set. Before
431

432
performing thin reclamation, determine whether the system recognizes the LUN as
a thinrclm LUN.
To identify devices on a host that are known to have the thin or thinrclm attributes,
use the vxdisk -o thin list command. The vxdisk -o thin list command
also reports on the size of the disk, and the physical space that is allocated on the
array.
To identify thin and thinrclm LUNs
To identify all of the thin or thinrclm LUNs that are known to a host, use the
following command:
# vxdisk -o thin list
DEVICE
xiv0_6695
xiv0_6696
xiv0_6697
xiv0_6698
xiv0_6699
3pardata0_5074
3pardata0_5075
3pardata0_5076
3pardata0_5077
3pardata0_5081
SIZE(MB)
16384
16384
16384
16384
16384
2048
2048
2048
2048
2048
PHYS_ALLOC(MB)
30
30
30
30
30
2043
2043
1166
2043
1092
GROUP
dg1
dg1
dg1
dg1
dg1
vvrdg
vvrdg
vvrdg
vvrdg
vvrdg
TYPE
thinrclm
thinrclm
thinrclm
thinrclm
thinrclm
thinrclm
thinrclm
thinrclm
thinrclm
thinrclm
RECLAIM_CMD
WRITE_SAME
WRITE_SAME
WRITE_SAME
WRITE_SAME
WRITE_SAME
WRITE_SAME
WRITE_SAME
WRITE_SAME
WRITE_SAME
WRITE_SAME
In the output, the SIZE column shows the size of the disk. The PHYS_ALLOC
column shows the physical allocation on the array side. The TYPE indicates
whether the array is thin or thinrclm. The RECLAIM_CMD column displays
which reclamation method that DMP uses.
See the vxdisk(1m) manual page.
Displaying detailed information about reclamation commands

Dynamic Multi-Pathing (DMP) supports several array-level reclamation commands:
UNMAP, WRITE_SAME, TRIM, and PTRIM. The Array Support Library (ASL) for
each array uses the most suitable reclamation method from those that are supported
for the array. DMP uses the preferred reclamation method that the vendor suggests
or selects a reclamation method based on performance analysis.
You cannot change the reclamation method that DMP uses. However, you can view
the information about the reclamation command that DMP has selected.
You can view information about other reclamation attributes that DMP uses to create
reclamation requests. The reclamation attributes are vendor-specific.

To display information about the thin reclamation methods
To display detailed information about the thin reclamation methods for a device,
# vxdisk -p list xiv0_6699
DISK
VID
UDID
TP_PREF_RCLMCMD
TP_RECLM_CMDS
TP_ALLOC_UNIT
TP_MAX_REC_SIZE
TP_LUN_SHIFT_OF
SCSI_VERSION
SCSI3_VPD_ID
REVISION
.
.
.
LUN_SIZE
NUM_PATHS
STATE
:
:
:
:
:
:
:
:
:
:
:
xiv0_6699
IBM
IBM%5F2810XIV%5F0E95%5F1A2B
write_same
write_same, unmap
1048576
268435456
0
5
001738000E951A2B
10.2
: 33554432
: 4
: online
The following fields show the information about the reclamation attributes:
TP_PREF_RCLMCMD
The preferred reclaim method for this array.
TP_RECLM_CMDS
The reclamation methods that the

underlying device supports.
TP_ALLOC_UNIT
The size in bytes of the allocation unit for

thin provisioning on the device.
TP_MAX_REC_SIZE
The maximum size in bytes of the

reclamation I/O on the device.
TP_LUN_SHIFT_OF
The value in bytes by which the vendor

shifts the initial offset for the LUN. Set this
value to align the reclaim request to the
TP_ALLOC_UNIT.
433

Displaying VxFS file system usage on thin reclamation

LUNs
Storage Foundation can discover and display the disk space usage for Veritas File
System (VxFS) file systems on thin or thinrclm devices. The VxFS file systems
must be mounted on Veritas Volume Manager (VxVM) volumes. The usage
information can help you decide when to perform thin reclamation of a file system.
See Determining when to reclaim space on a thin reclamation LUN on page 422.
To report the per-LUN disk space usage for currently mounted VxFS file systems
on VxVM volumes, use the vxdisk -o thin -o fssize list command. The
command displays the amount of disk space that currently contains files and is
actively in use by the VxFS file system. The usage does not include any space that
is allocated to the file system but was freed by deleting files. If more than one
mounted VxFS file system uses the device, the file system usage column displays
the consolidated space usage. The -o fssize option maps the file system space
usage to the underlying LUNs. The disk space usage statistics may differ slightly
from the usage reported by other utilities because of the base unit used for the
calculation.
The following limitations apply to the command to display file system usage:
The -o fssize option does not display the space used by cache objects or
instant snapshots.
RAID5 format is not supported.
If the VxFS file system is not mounted, or if the device has both mounted and
unmounted VxFS file systems, no information is displayed. The file system
usage (FS_SIZE) column displays a dash (-).
You can display the size and usage for all thin or thinrclm LUNs, or specify an
enclosure name or a device name. If you specify one or more devices or enclosures,
the command displays only the space usage on the specified devices. If the specified
device is not a thin device or thinrclm device, the device is listed but the FS_SIZE
column displays a dash (-).
If a VxFS file system spans multiple devices, you must specify all of the devices to
display the entire file system usage. If you specify only some of the devices, the
file system usage is incomplete. The command ignores the file system usage on
any devices that are not specified.
Note: The command can potentially take a long time to complete depending on the
file system size, the level of fragmentation, and other factors. The command creates
a task that you can monitor with the vxtask command.
434

The command output displays the following information.

DEVICE
The name of the VxVM disk, in either Enclosure-based

naming (EBN) or OS-based naming (OSN).
SIZE
The size of the disk; that is, the size that is presented to the
file system. This size represents the virtual size rather than
the actual physical space used on the device.
PHYS_ALLOC
The physical allocation on the array side. This size represents

the physical space that is allocated as the application writes
to the file system. When the files are deleted or changed, the
physical space remains allocated until a reclamation is
performed. In this case, the physical size includes some
unused space.
FS_SIZE
The physical space Veritas File System (VxFS) file systems

are using. The VxFS file systems must be mounted on VxVM
volumes. The information is displayed only for thin
provisioning capable (thin) or thin reclamation capable
(thinrclm) LUNs.
GROUP
The disk group that contains the disk.
TYPE
The type of thin devices thin provisioning capable (thin) or

thin reclamation capable (thinrclm). The vxdisk -o thin
list command displays thick disks only if you explicitly
specify the disk name on the command line.
RECLAIM_CMD
The reclamation method that DMP uses.
435

To display file system usage on all thin LUNs
To display the file system usage on all thin or thinrclm LUNs known to the
system, use the following command:
$ vxdisk -o thin,fssize [-u unit] list
Where unit is a size unit for the display. For example:

$ vxdisk -o thin,fssize -u m list
DEVICE
emc0_428a
emc0_428b
emc0_4287
emc0_4288
emc0_4289
xiv0_030f
xiv0_0307
xiv0_0308
xiv0_0309
xiv0_0310
SIZE
16384.00m
16384.00m
16384.00m
16384.00m
16384.00m
16384.00m
16384.00m
16384.00m
16384.00m
16384.00m
PHYS_ALLOC FS_SIZE GROUP

6335.00m
610.00m mydg
3200.00m
22.00m mydg
6233.00m
617.00m mydg
1584.00m 1417.00m mydg
2844.00m 1187.00m mydg
2839.00m 1223.00m xivdg
666.00m
146.00m xivdg
667.00m
147.00m xivdg
3.00m
30.00m
-
TYPE
RECLAIM_CMD
thinrclm WRITE_SAME
thinrclm WRITE_SAME
thinrclm WRITE_SAME
thinrclm WRITE_SAME
thinrclm WRITE_SAME
thinrclm WRITE_SAME
thinrclm WRITE_SAME
thinrclm WRITE_SAME
thinrclm WRITE_SAME
thinrclm WRITE_SAME
Or, to display the file system usage on a specific LUN or enclosure, use the
following form of the command:
$ vxdisk -o thin,fssize list [-u unit] disk|enclosure
For example:
$ vxdisk -o thin,fssize list emc0
DEVICE
emc0_428a
emc0_428b
emc0_4287
emc0_4288
emc0_4289
SIZE(MB)
16384
16384
16384
16384
16384
PHYS_ALLOC(MB)
6335
6335
6335
1584
2844
FS_SIZE(MB)
610
624
617
617
1187
GROUP
mydg
mydg
mydg
mydg
mydg
TYPE
thinrclm
thinrclm
thinrclm
thinrclm
thinrclm
RECLAIM_CMD
WRITE_SAME
WRITE_SAME
WRITE_SAME
WRITE_SAME
WRITE_SAME

Table 22-1 lists the fsadm command options that administer thin reclamation.
436

Table 22-1
fsadm options for administering thin reclamation
Option
Description
-o aggressive | -A
Initiates Thin Storage aggressive reclamation.

Aggressive reclamation is not supported on
SSD devices.
-o analyse|analyze
Initiates the analyze reclaim option.
-o auto
Initiates the auto reclaim option.
-o ssd
Initiates the TRIM command on an underlying

SSD trim-capable device.
-o thin
Initiates thin reclamation on the underlying

Thin Reclaim-capable device.
-P
Performs multi-threaded Thin Storage

reclamation. By default, the fsadm command
performs single-threaded Thin Storage
reclamation. To use multi-threaded Thin
Storage Reclamation, the array must support
multiple concurrent reclaim operations.
-R
Performs reclamation of free storage to the

Thin Storage LUN on a VxFS file system .

To perform aggressive space reclamation
Ensure you mounted the VxFS file system.

See the mount(1M) manual page.
If you must mount the VxFS file system, see the mount_vxfs(1M) manual page.
Perform aggressive reclamation of free storage to the Thin Storage LUN on

the VxFS file system that is mounted at /mnt1:
# /opt/VRTS/bin/fsadm -R -o aggressive /mnt1
437

To perform space reclamation
Ensure you mounted the VxFS file system.

See the mount(1M) manual page.
If you must mount the VxFS file system, see the mount_vxfs(1M) manual page.
Perform space reclamation on the VxFS file system that is mounted at /mnt1:
# /opt/VRTS/bin/fsadm -R /mnt1

Use the vxdisk reclaim command to trigger online Thin Reclamation on one or
more disks, disk groups, or enclosures. By default, the vxdisk reclaim command
performs Thin Reclamation on the disks where the VxVM volume is on a mounted
VxFS file system. The reclamation skips disks that do not have a VxFS file system
mounted. Thin reclamation is not supported for RAID-5 volumes, or for instant
snapshots.
Storage Foundation logs the statistics for reclamation events in the
/etc/vx/log/reclaim_log file.
See About the reclamation log file on page 440.
By default, the commands below also perform TRIM reclamation if the specified
disks are Solid State Devices (SSDs). In this release, the TRIM operation is
supported only for Fusion-io devices on Red Hat Linux 6 (RHEL6) and SUSE Linux
Enterprise Server 11 (SLES11).
Reclaiming space on a disk
Use the following command to trigger reclamation:

# vxdisk reclaim [disk...]
For example, to trigger reclamation on LUNs hitachi_usp0_065a and

hitachi_usp0_065b:
# vxdisk reclaim hitachi_usp0_065a hitachi_usp0_065b
In the above example, suppose the hitachi_usp0_065a contains a VxVM volume

vol1 with a VxFS file system. If the VxFS file system is not mounted, the
command skips reclamation for hitachi_usp0_065a. The command scans
hitachi_usp0_065b, and reclaims any unused space.
438

Performing an aggressive space reclamation on a disk

# vxdisk -o full reclaim [disk...]
For example, to trigger reclamation on LUNs hitachi_usp0_065a:

# vxdisk -o full reclaim hitachi_usp0_065a
In the above example, suppose the hitachi_usp0_065a contains a VxVM volume

vol1 with a VxFS file system mounted. With the -o full option, the above
command scans hitachi_usp0_065a for unused space outside of the vol1, and
reclaims any unused space found. For example, if there is space between
subdisks, it is reclaimed.
Reclaiming space on an SSD disk
Use the following command to trigger TRIM operation:

# vxdisk [-o ssd] reclaim [disk...]
For example, to trigger TRIM on fusionio0_0 and fusionio0_2:

# vxdisk reclaim fusionio0_0 fusionio0_2
Reclaiming space on a disk group

# vxdisk [-o ssd | -o thin] reclaim diskgroup
For example, to trigger reclamation on the disk group oradg:

# vxdisk reclaim oradg
If the disk group contains both SSDs and Thin Reclamation LUNs, you can
use the -o ssd option to perform only the TRIM operation. Use the -o thin
option to perform only the thin reclamation.
Reclaiming space on an enclosure

# vxdisk reclaim enclosure
For example, to trigger reclamation on the enclosure=EMC_CLARiiON0:

# vxdisk reclaim EMC_CLARiiON0
439

You can turn off TRIM functionalty or thin reclamation for a specific device with the
following command:
# vxdisk set reclaim=off disk

Storage Foundation logs the statistics for reclamation events in the
/etc/vx/log/reclaim_log file. Table 22-2 describes the fields in the reclamation
log file.
For Veritas Volume Replicator (VVR), reclamation logging only happens for the
local node.
Table 22-2
The reclamation log file fields
LOG fields
Description
START_TIME
The start time of the reclamation task.
DURATION
The time taken to complete the reclamation task.
DISKGROUP
The disk group name associated with the subdisk. For TYPE=GAP, the
disk group value may be NULL value.
VOLUME
The volume associated with the subdisk. If a volume is not associated

with the subdisk, the value is NULL.
DISK
The disk associated with the subdisk.
SUBDISK
The subdisk name for which the reclamation operation is performed.
OFFSET
The starting offset of the subdisk.
LEN
The total length of the subdisk.
PA_BEFORE
The physical allocation before the reclamation task.
PA_AFTER
The physical allocation after the reclamation task.
TYPE
The type for the reclamation operation. The value is one of the following:
GAP: reclaim the gap between the subdisks
SD: reclaim the subdisk
FULL: reclaim the full LUN on disk with no DG present
VXFS: reclaim a mounted VxFS file system.
440

Monitoring Thin Reclamation using the vxtask command
Table 22-2
The reclamation log file fields (continued)
LOG fields
Description
STATUS
Whether the reclamation operation succeeded or not.

In case of failure, the STATUS also displays the error code.
When an object such as a volume or plex is removed, the status is
logged as "Pending."
Monitoring Thin Reclamation using the vxtask

command
The thin reclamation can be an intensive operation that may be time consuming,
depending on the size of the disk and the amount of space to be reclaimed. As with
other long-running tasks, you can monitor the operation with the vxtask command.
To monitor thin reclamation
Initiate the thin reclamation as usual, for a disk, disk group, or enclosure.
# vxdisk reclaim diskgroup| disk| enclosure
For example:
# vxdisk reclaim dg100
To monitor the reclamation status, run the following command in another

session:
# vxtask monitor
TASKID
1258
1259
1263
1258
1258
1263
1259
PTID
-
TYPE/STATE
PCT
PROGRESS
RECLAIM/R 17.28% 65792/33447328/5834752
RECLAIM/R 25.98% 0/20971520/5447680
RECLAIM/R 25.21% 0/20971520/5287936
RECLAIM/R 25.49% 0/20971520/3248128
RECLAIM/R 27.51% 0/20971520/3252224
RECLAIM/R 25.23% 0/20971520/5292032
RECLAIM/R 26.00% 0/20971520/5451776
RECLAIM
RECLAIM
RECLAIM
RECLAIM
RECLAIM
RECLAIM
RECLAIM
vol4
vol2
vol3
vol4
vol4
vol3
vol2
dg100
dg100
dg100
dg100
dg100
dg100
dg100
441

If you have multiple tasks, you can use the following command to display the
tasks.
# vxtask list
TASKID
1258
1259
1263
PTID
-
TYPE/STATE
PCT
PROGRESS
RECLAIM/R 17.28% 65792/33447328/5834752 RECLAIM vol4 dg100
RECLAIM/R 25.98% 0/20971520/5447680
RECLAIM vol2 dg100
RECLAIM/R 25.21% 0/20971520/5287936
RECLAIM vol3 dg100
Use the task id from the above output to monitor the task:
# vxtask monitor 1258
TASKID
1258
1258
1258
1258
.
.
.
PTID
-
TYPE/STATE
PCT
PROGRESS
RECLAIM/R 50.00% 0/20971520/10485760
RECLAIM vol4 dg100
The vxdisk reclaim command runs in another session while you run the
vxtask list command.
See the vxtask(1m) manual page.

The vxrelocd daemon tracks the disks that require reclamation. By default, the
vxrelocd daemon runs everyday at 22:10 hours and reclaims storage on the deleted
volumes that are one day old.
To control the schedule for reclamation, use the following tunable parameters:
442

reclaim_on_delete_wait_period
Specifies the number of days after a volume

or plex is deleted when VxVM reclaims the
storage space. The value is an integer
between -1 and 367.
The default value is 1, which means the
space is reclaimed the next day.
A value of -1 indicates that the storage is
reclaimed immediately.
A value of 367 indicates that the storage
space is not reclaimed automatically. Storage
space can only be reclaimed manually using
the vxdisk reclaim command.
reclaim_on_delete_start_time
The time of day when VxVM starts the

reclamation for deleted volumes. The value
is any time of day in 24 hour format. (hh:mm)
The default time is 22:10.
Change the tunables using the vxdefault command. See the vxdefault(1m)
manual page.
443
Section
Maximizing storage
utilization
Chapter 23. Understanding storage tiering with SmartTier
Chapter 24. Creating and administering volume sets
Chapter 25. Multi-volume file systems
Chapter 26. Administering SmartTier
Chapter 27. Administering hot-relocation
Chapter 28. Deduplicating data
Chapter 29. Compressing files
Chapter
23
Understanding storage
tiering with SmartTier
About SmartTier
How the SmartTier policy works with the shared extents
SmartTier in a High Availability (HA) environment
About SmartTier
SmartTier matches data storage with data usage requirements. After data matching,
the data can then be relocated based upon data usage and other requirements
determined by the storage or database administrator (DBA).
As more and more data is retained over a period of time, eventually, some of that
data is needed less frequently. The data that is needed less frequently still requires
a large amount of disk space. SmartTier enables the database administrator to
manage data so that less frequently used data can be moved to slower, less
expensive disks. This also permits the frequently accessed data to be stored on
faster disks for quicker retrieval.
Tiered storage is the assignment of different types of data to different storage types
to improve performance and reduce costs. With SmartTier, storage classes are
used to designate which disks make up a particular tier. There are two common
ways of defining storage classes:
Performance, or storage, cost class: The most-used class consists of fast,

expensive disks. When data is no longer needed on a regular basis, the data
can be moved to a different class that is made up of slower, less expensive
disks.
Understanding storage tiering with SmartTier

About SmartTier
Resilience class: Each class consists of non-mirrored volumes, mirrored volumes,

and n-way mirrored volumes.
For example, a database is usually made up of data, an index, and logs. The
data could be set up with a three-way mirror because data is critical. The index
could be set up with a two-way mirror because the index is important, but can
be recreated. The redo and archive logs are not required on a daily basis but
are vital to database recovery and should also be mirrored.
SmartTier is a VxFS feature that enables you to allocate file storage space from
different storage tiers according to rules you create. SmartTier provides a more
flexible alternative compared to current approaches for tiered storage. Static storage
tiering involves a manual one- time assignment of application files to a storage
class, which is inflexible over a long term. Hierarchical Storage Management
solutions typically require files to be migrated back into a file system name space
before an application access request can be fulfilled, leading to latency and run-time
overhead. In contrast, SmartTier allows organizations to:
Optimize storage assets by dynamically moving a file to its optimal storage tier
as the value of the file changes over time
Automate the movement of data between storage tiers without changing the
way users or applications access the files
Migrate data automatically based on policies set up by administrators, eliminating

operational requirements for tiered storage and downtime commonly associated
with data movement
Note: SmartTier is the expanded and renamed feature previously known as Dynamic
Storage Tiering (DST).
SmartTier policies control initial file location and the circumstances under which
existing files are relocated. These policies cause the files to which they apply to be
created and extended on specific subsets of a file systems's volume set, known as
placement classes. The files are relocated to volumes in other placement classes
when they meet specified naming, timing, access rate, and storage capacity-related
conditions.
In addition to preset policies, you can manually move files to faster or slower storage
with SmartTier, when necessary. You can also run reports that list active policies,
display file activity, display volume usage, or show file statistics.
SmartTier leverages two key technologies included with Symantec Storage
Foundation: support for multi-volume file systems and automatic policy-based
placement of files within the storage managed by a file system. A multi-volume file
system occupies two or more virtual storage volumes and thereby enables a single
file system to span across multiple, possibly heterogeneous, physical storage
446

About SmartTier
devices. For example the first volume could reside on EMC Symmetrix DMX
spindles, and the second volume could reside on EMC CLARiiON spindles. By
presenting a single name space, multi-volumes are transparent to users and
applications. This multi-volume file system remains aware of each volumes identity,
making it possible to control the locations at which individual files are stored. When
combined with the automatic policy-based placement of files, the multi-volume file
system provides an ideal storage tiering facility, which moves data automatically
without any downtime requirements for applications and users alike.
In a database environment, the access age rule can be applied to some files.
However, some data files, for instance are updated every time they are accessed
and hence access age rules cannot be used. SmartTier provides mechanisms to
relocate portions of files as well as entire files to a secondary tier.
To use SmartTier, your storage must be managed using the following features:
VxFS multi-volume file system
VxVM volume set
Volume tags
SmartTier management at the file level
SmartTier management at the sub-file level
About VxFS multi-volume file systems

Multi-volume file systems are file systems that occupy two or more virtual volumes.
The collection of volumes is known as a volume set, and is made up of disks or
disk array LUNs belonging to a single Veritas Volume Manager (VxVM) disk group.
A multi-volume file system presents a single name space, making the existence of
multiple volumes transparent to users and applications. Each volume retains a
separate identity for administrative purposes, making it possible to control the
locations to which individual files are directed.
This feature is available only on file systems meeting the following requirements:
The minimum disk group version is 140.

See Disk group versions on page 617.
The minimum file system layout version is 7 for file level SmartTier.
The minimum file system layout version is 8 for sub-file level SmartTier.
To convert your existing VxFS system to a VxFS multi-volume file system, you must
convert a single volume to a volume set.
447

About SmartTier
See Converting a single volume file system to a multi-volume file system

on page 463.
The VxFS volume administration utility (fsvoladm utility) can be used to administer
VxFS volumes. The fsvoladm utility performs administrative tasks, such as adding,
removing, resizing, encapsulating volumes, and setting, clearing, or querying flags
on volumes in a specified Veritas File System.
See the fsvoladm (1M) manual page for additional information about using this
utility.
About VxVM volume sets

Volume sets allow several volumes to be represented by a single logical object.
Volume sets cannot be empty. All I/O from and to the underlying volumes is directed
via the I/O interfaces of the volume set. The volume set feature supports the
multi-volume enhancement to Veritas File System (VxFS). This feature allows file
systems to make best use of the different performance and availability characteristics
of the underlying volumes. For example, file system metadata could be stored on
volumes with higher redundancy, and user data on volumes with better performance.
About volume tags

You make a VxVM volume part of a placement class by associating a volume tag
with it. For file placement purposes, VxFS treats all of the volumes in a placement
class as equivalent, and balances space allocation across them. A volume may
have more than one tag associated with it. If a volume has multiple tags, the volume
belongs to multiple placement classes and is subject to allocation and relocation
policies that relate to any of the placement classes.
Warning: Multiple tagging should be used carefully.
A placement class is a SmartTier attribute of a given volume in a volume set of a
multi-volume file system. This attribute is a character string, and is known as a
volume tag.
SmartTier file management

SmartTier enables administrators of multi-volume VxFS file systems to manage the
placement of files on individual volumes in a volume set by defining placement
policies that control both initial file location and the circumstances under which
existing files are relocated. These placement policies cause the files to which they
apply to be created and extended on specific subsets of a file system's volume set,
448

How the SmartTier policy works with the shared extents
known as placement classes. The files are relocated to volumes in other placement
classes when they meet the specified naming, timing, access rate, and storage
capacity-related conditions.
File-based movement:
The administrator can create a file allocation policy based on filename extension
before new files are created, which will create the datafiles on the appropriate
tier during database creation.
The administrator can also create a file relocation policy for database files or
any types of files, which would relocate files based on how frequently a file is
used.
SmartTier sub-file object management

SmartTier enables administrators of multi-volume VxFS file systems to manage the
placement of file objects as well as entire files on individual volumes.
Using sub-file based movement you can:
Move a set of ranges of a specified set of files of a specified set of mounts to a

desired set of tiers on command.
Move segments of files using automation to:
Monitor a set of files for collecting I/O statistics
Periodically collect and persist the statistics, cluster-wide if applicable
Periodically enforce the ranges of the registered sets of files based on their
relative frequency of access to a desired set of tiers
Track the historical movements of those ranges
How the SmartTier policy works with the shared

extents
The SmartTier enforcement operation ignores moving the shared extents. For
example, consider a file A that contains some shared and private extents that belong
to device 1. If the user sets a policy that states that all the extents of the file A must
be allocated to device 2, the SmartTier enforcement operation moves all the
non-shared extents from device 1 to device 2. However, the SmartTier enforcement
operation ignores moving the shared extents. As a result, the file A still contains
shared extents that belong to device 1. This occurs even after the successful
execution of the SmartTier enforcement operation.
449

On the other hand, any subsequent new allocation on behalf of the file A adheres
to the preset SmartTier policy. Since the copy-on-write or unshare operation requires
a new allocation, the SmartTier enforcement operation complies with the preset
policy. If a write operation on the file A writes to shared extents, new allocations as
part of copy-on-write operation is done from device 2. This behaviour adheres to
the preset SmartTier policy.

Symantec Cluster Server does not provide a bundled agent for volume sets. If
issues arise with volumes or volume sets, the issues can only be detected at the
DiskGroup and Mount resource levels.
The DiskGroup agent brings online, takes offline, and monitors a Veritas Volume
Manager (VxVM) disk group. This agent uses VxVM commands. When the value
of the StartVolumes and StopVolumes attributes are both 1, the DiskGroup agent
onlines and offlines the volumes during the import and deport operations of the disk
group. When using volume sets, set StartVolumes and StopVolumes attributes of
the DiskGroup resource that contains the volume are set to 1. If a file system is
created on the volume set, use a Mount resource to mount the volume set.
The Mount agent brings online, takes offline, and monitors a file system or NFS
client mount point.
For additional information, see the Symantec Cluster Server Bundled Agents
Reference Guide.
450
Chapter
24
Creating and administering

volume sets
About volume sets
Creating a volume set
Adding a volume to a volume set
Removing a volume from a volume set
Listing details of volume sets
Stopping and starting volume sets
Managing raw device nodes of component volumes
About volume sets

Veritas File System (VxFS) uses volume sets to implement its Multi-Volume Support
and SmartTier features.
Veritas Volume Manager (VxVM) provides the vxvset command to create and
administer volume sets.
See the vxvset(1M) manual page.
Volume sets have the following limitations:
A maximum of 2048 volumes can be configured in a volume set.
Only a Veritas File System is supported on a volume set.
Creating and administering volume sets

The first volume (index 0) in a volume set must be larger than the sum of the
total volume size divided by 4000, the size of the VxFS intent log, and 1MB.
Volumes 258 MB or larger should always suffice.
Raw I/O from and to a volume set is not supported.
Raw I/O from and to the component volumes of a volume set is supported under
certain conditions.
See Managing raw device nodes of component volumes on page 455.
Volume sets can be used in place of volumes with the following vxsnap
operations on instant snapshots: addmir, dis, make, prepare, reattach,
refresh, restore, rmmir, split, syncpause, syncresume, syncstart, syncstop,
syncwait, and unprepare. The third-mirror break-off usage model for full-sized
instant snapshots is supported for volume sets provided that sufficient plexes
exist for each volume in the volume set.
For more information about snapshots, see the Symantec Storage Foundation
and High Availability Solutions Solutions Guide.
A full-sized snapshot of a volume set must itself be a volume set with the same
number of volumes and the same volume index numbers as the parent. The
corresponding volumes in the parent and snapshot volume sets are also subject
to the same restrictions as apply between standalone volumes and their
snapshots.

To create a volume set for use by Veritas File System (VxFS), use the following
command:
# vxvset [-g diskgroup] -t vxfs make volset
volume
Here volset is the name of the volume set, and volume is the name of the first
volume in the volume set. The -t vxfs option creates the volume set configured
for use by VxFS. You must create the volume before running the command. vxvset
will not automatically create the volume.
For example, to create a volume set named myvset that contains the volume vol1,
in the disk group mydg, you would use the following command:
# vxvset -g mydg -t vxfs make myvset vol1
452


Having created a volume set containing a single volume, you can use the following
command to add further volumes to the volume set:
# vxvset [-g diskgroup] [-f] addvol volset
volume
For example, to add the volume vol2, to the volume set myvset, use the following
command:
# vxvset -g mydg addvol myvset vol2
Warning: The -f (force) option must be specified if the volume being added, or any
volume in the volume set, is either a snapshot or the parent of a snapshot. Using
this option can potentially cause inconsistencies in a snapshot hierarchy if any of
the volumes involved in the operation is already in a snapshot chain.
Removing a volume from a volume set

To remove a component volume from a volume set, use the following command:
# vxvset [-g diskgroup] [-f] rmvol volset
volume
For example, the following commands remove the volumes, vol1 and vol2, from
the volume set myvset:
# vxvset -g mydg -f rmvol myvset vol1
# vxvset -g mydg -f rmvol myvset vol2
Removing the final volume deletes the volume set.

Warning: The -f (force) option must be specified if the volume being removed, or
any volume in the volume set, is either a snapshot or the parent of a snapshot.
Using this option can potentially cause inconsistencies in a snapshot hierarchy if
any of the volumes involved in the operation is already in a snapshot chain.
Listing details of volume sets

To list the details of the component volumes of a volume set, use the following
command:
453

454
# vxvset [-g diskgroup] list [volset]
If the name of a volume set is not specified, the command lists the details of all
volume sets in a disk group, as shown in the following example:
# vxvset -g mydg list
NAME
set1
set2
GROUP
mydg
mydg
NVOLS
3
2
CONTEXT
-
To list the details of each volume in a volume set, specify the name of the volume
set as an argument to the command:
# vxvset -g mydg list set1
VOLUME
vol1
vol2
vol3
INDEX
0
1
2
LENGTH
12582912
12582912
12582912
KSTATE
ENABLED
ENABLED
ENABLED
CONTEXT
-
The context field contains details of any string that the application has set up for
the volume or volume set to tag its purpose.

Under some circumstances, you may need to stop and restart a volume set. For
example, a volume within the set may have become detached, as shown here:
VOLUME
vol1
vol2
vol3
INDEX
0
1
2
LENGTH
12582912
12582912
12582912
KSTATE
DETACHED
ENABLED
ENABLED
CONTEXT
-
To stop and restart one or more volume sets, use the following commands:
# vxvset [-g diskgroup] stop volset ...
# vxvset [-g diskgroup] start volset ...
For the example given previously, the effect of running these commands on the
component volumes is shown below:

455
# vxvset -g mydg stop set1

VOLUME
vol1
vol2
vol3
INDEX
0
1
2
LENGTH
12582912
12582912
12582912
KSTATE
DISABLED
DISABLED
DISABLED
CONTEXT
-
LENGTH
12582912
12582912
12582912
KSTATE
ENABLED
ENABLED
ENABLED
CONTEXT
-
# vxvset -g mydg start set1

VOLUME
vol1
vol2
vol3
INDEX
0
1
2

To guard against accidental file system and data corruption, the device nodes of
the component volumes are configured by default not to have raw and block entries
in the /dev/vx/rdsk/diskgroup and /dev/vx/dsk/diskgroup directories. As a
result, applications are prevented from directly reading from or writing to the
component volumes of a volume set.
If some applications, such as the raw volume backup and restore feature of the
Symantec NetBackup software, need to read from or write to the component
volumes by accessing raw device nodes in the /dev/vx/rdsk/diskgroup directory,
this is supported by specifying additional command-line options to the vxvset
command. Access to the block device nodes of the component volumes of a volume
set is unsupported.
Warning: Writing directly to or reading from the raw device node of a component
volume of a volume set should only be performed if it is known that the volume's
data will not otherwise change during the period of access.
All of the raw device nodes for the component volumes of a volume set can be
created or removed in a single operation. Raw device nodes for any volumes added
to a volume set are created automatically as required, and inherit the access mode
of the existing device nodes.

Access to the raw device nodes for the component volumes can be configured to
be read-only or read-write. This mode is shared by all the raw device nodes for the
component volumes of a volume set. The read-only access mode implies that any
writes to the raw device will fail, however writes using the ioctl interface or by
VxFS to update metadata are not prevented. The read-write access mode allows
direct writes via the raw device. The access mode to the raw device nodes of a
volume set can be changed as required.
The presence of raw device nodes and their access mode is persistent across
system reboots.
Note the following limitations of this feature:
The disk group version must be 140 or greater.
Access to the raw device nodes of the component volumes of a volume set is
only supported for private disk groups; it is not supported for shared disk groups
in a cluster.
Enabling raw device access when creating a volume set

To enable raw device access when creating a volume set, use the following form
of the vxvset make command:
# vxvset [-g diskgroup] -o makedev=on \
[-o compvol_access={read-only|read-write}] \
[-o index] [-c "ch_addopt"] make vset
vol [index]
The -o makedev=on option enables the creation of raw device nodes for the
component volumes at the same time that the volume set is created. The default
setting is off.
If the -o compvol_access=read-write option is specified, direct writes are allowed
to the raw device of each component volume. If the value is set to read-only, only
reads are allowed from the raw device of each component volume.
If the -o makedev=on option is specified, but -o compvol_access is not specified,
the default access mode is read-only.
If the vxvset addvol command is subsequently used to add a volume to a volume
set, a new raw device node is created in /dev/vx/rdsk/diskgroup if the value of
the makedev attribute is currently set to on. The access mode is determined by the
current setting of the compvol_access attribute.
The following example creates a volume set, myvset1, containing the volume,
myvol1, in the disk group, mydg, with raw device access enabled in read-write mode:
456

# vxvset -g mydg -o makedev=on -o compvol_access=read-write \

make myvset1 myvol1
Displaying the raw device access settings for a volume set

You can use the vxprint -m command to display the current settings for a volume
set. If the makedev attribute is set to on, one of the following strings is displayed in
the output:
vset_devinfo=on:read-only
Raw device nodes in read-only mode.
vset_devinfo=on:read-write
Raw device nodes in read-write mode.
A string is not displayed if makedev is set to off.

If the output from the vxprint -m command is fed to the vxmake command to
recreate a volume set, the vset_devinfo attribute must set to off. Use the vxvset
set command to re-enable raw device access with the desired access mode.
See Controlling raw device access for an existing volume set on page 457.
Controlling raw device access for an existing volume set

To enable or disable raw device node access for an existing volume set, use the
following command:
# vxvset [-g diskgroup] [-f] set makedev={on|off} vset
The makedev attribute can be specified to the vxvset set command to create
(makedev=on) or remove (makedev=off) the raw device nodes for the component
volumes of a volume set. If any of the component volumes are open, the -f (force)
option must be specified to set the attribute to off.
Specifying makedev=off removes the existing raw device nodes from the
/dev/vx/rdsk/diskgroup directory.
If the makedev attribute is set to off, and you use the mknod command to create
the raw device nodes, you cannot read from or write to those nodes unless you set
the value of makedev to on.
The syntax for setting the compvol_access attribute on a volume set is:
# vxvset [-g diskgroup] [-f] set \
compvol_access={read-only|read-write} vset
The compvol_access attribute can be specified to the vxvset set command to

change the access mode to the component volumes of a volume set. If any of the
457

component volumes are open, the -f (force) option must be specified to set the
attribute to read-only.
The following example sets the makedev=on and compvol_access=read-only
attributes on a volume set, myvset2, in the disk group, mydg:
# vxvset -g mydg set makedev=on myvset2
The next example sets the compvol_access=read-write attribute on the volume

set, myvset2:
# vxvset -g mydg set compvol_access=read-write myvset2
The final example removes raw device node access for the volume set, myvset2:
# vxvset -g mydg set makedev=off myvset2
458
Chapter
25

About multi-volume file systems
About volume types
Features implemented using multi-volume support
Creating multi-volume file systems
Converting a single volume file system to a multi-volume file system
Adding a volume to and removing a volume from a multi-volume file system
Volume encapsulation
Reporting file extents
Load balancing
Converting a multi-volume file system to a single volume file system
About multi-volume file systems

Veritas File System (VxFS) provides support for multi-volume file systems when
used in conjunction with the Veritas Volume Manager. Using multi-volume support
(MVS), a single file system can be created over multiple volumes, each volume
having its own properties. For example, it is possible to place metadata on mirrored
storage while placing file data on better-performing volume types such as RAID-1+0
(striped and mirrored). The volume must be in the same disk group as the volume
set, and it cannot already be a member of another volume set.
The MVS feature also allows file systems to reside on different classes of devices,
so that a file system can be supported from both inexpensive disks and from

About volume types
expensive arrays. Using the MVS administrative interface, you can control which
data goes on which volume types.
Note: Multi-volume file system support is available only on file systems using disk
layout Version 7 or later.
About volume types

Veritas File System (VxFS) utilizes two types of volumes, one of which contains
only data, referred to as dataonly, and the other of which can contain metadata
or data, referred to as metadataok.
Data refers to direct extents, which contain user data, of regular files and named
data streams in a file system.
Metadata refers to all extents that are not regular file or named data stream extents.
This includes certain files that appear to be regular files, but are not, such as the
File Change Log file.
A volume availability flag is set to specify if a volume is dataonly or metadataok.
The volume availability flag can be set, cleared, and listed with the fsvoladm
command.
See the fsvoladm(1M) manual page.

The following features can be implemented using multi-volume support:
Controlling where files are stored can be selected at multiple levels so that
specific files or file hierarchies can be assigned to different volumes. This
functionality is available in the Veritas File System SmartTier feature.
Placing the VxFS intent log on its own volume to minimize disk head movement
and thereby increase performance.
Separating Storage Checkpoints so that data allocated to a Storage Checkpoint

is isolated from the rest of the file system.
Separating metadata from file data.
Encapsulating volumes so that a volume appears in the file system as a file.

This is particularly useful for databases that are running on raw volumes.
Guaranteeing that a dataonly volume being unavailable does not cause a

metadataok volume to be unavailable.
460

See Volume availability on page 461.

To use the multi-volume file system features, Veritas Volume Manager must be
installed and the volume set feature must be accessible. The volume set feature is
separately licensed.
Volume availability
MVS guarantees that a dataonly volume being unavailable does not cause a
metadataok volume to be unavailable. This allows you to mount a multi-volume file
system even if one or more component dataonly volumes are missing.
The volumes are separated by whether metadata is allowed on the volume. An I/O
error on a dataonly volume does not affect access to any other volumes. All VxFS
operations that do not access the missing dataonly volume function normally.
Some VxFS operations that do not access the missing dataonly volume and
function normally include the following:
Mounting the multi-volume file system, regardless if the file system is read-only
or read/write.
Kernel operations.
Performing a fsck replay. Logged writes are converted to normal writes if the
corresponding volume is dataonly.
Performing a full fsck.
Using all other commands that do not access data on a missing volume.
Some operations that could fail if a dataonly volume is missing include:
Reading or writing file data if the file's data extents were allocated from the
missing dataonly volume.
Using the vxdump command.
Volume availability is supported only on a file system with disk layout Version 7 or
later.
Note: Do not mount a multi-volume system with the ioerror=disable or
ioerror=wdisable mount options if the volumes have different availability properties.
Symantec recommends the ioerror=mdisable mount option both for cluster mounts
and for local mounts.
461

462

When a multi-volume file system is created, all volumes are dataonly, except
volume zero, which is used to store the file system's metadata. The volume
availability flag of volume zero cannot be set to dataonly.
As metadata cannot be allocated from dataonly volumes, enough metadata space
should be allocated using metadataok volumes. The "file system out of space" error
occurs if there is insufficient metadata space available, even if the df command
shows that there is free space in the file system. The fsvoladm command can be
used to see the free space in each volume and set the availability flag of the volume.
Unless otherwise specified, VxFS commands function the same on multi-volume
file systems as the commands do on single-volume file systems.
The following procedure is an example of creating a multi-volume file system.
Example of creating a multi-volume file system
After a volume set is created, create a VxFS file system by specifying the
volume set name as an argument to mkfs:
# mkfs -t vxfs /dev/vx/rdsk/dg1/myvset
version 10 layout
maxlink
supported
After the file system is created, VxFS allocates space from the different volumes
within the volume set.
List the component volumes of the volume set using of the fsvoladm command:
# mount -t vxfs /dev/vx/dsk/dg1/myvset /mnt1
devid
0
1
size
20 GB
30 TB
used
10 GB
10 TB
avail
10 GB
20 TB
name
vol1
vol2

Add a new volume by adding the volume to the volume set, then adding the
volume to the file system:
# vxassist -g dg1 make vol5 50m
# vxvset -g dg1 addvol myvset vol5
# fsvoladm add /mnt1 vol5 50m
devid
0
1
2
size
10 GB
20 GB
50 MB
used
74.6 MB
16 KB
16 KB
avail
9.93 GB
20.0 GB
50.0 MB
name
vol1
vol2
vol5
List the volume availability flags using the fsvoladm command:

# fsvoladm queryflags /mnt1
volname
vol1
vol2
vol3
vol4
vol5
flags
metadataok
dataonly
dataonly
dataonly
dataonly
Increase the metadata space in the file system using the fsvoladm command:
# fsvoladm clearflags dataonly /mnt1 vol2
# fsvoladm queryflags /mnt1
volname
vol1
vol2
vol3
vol4
vol5
flags
metadataok
metadataok
dataonly
dataonly
dataonly
Converting a single volume file system to a

multi-volume file system
The following procedure converts a traditional, single volume file system, /mnt1,
on a single volume vol1 in the disk group dg1 to a multi-volume file system.
463

To convert a single volume file system
Determine the version of the volume's disk group:

# vxdg list dg1 | grep version: | awk '{ print $2 }'
90
If the version is less than 110, upgrade the disk group:

# vxdg upgrade dg1
Determine the disk layout version of the file system:

# vxupgrade /mnt1
/mnt1: vxfs file system version 7 layout
If the disk layout version is 7, upgrade to Version 8:

# vxupgrade -n 8 /mnt1
Unmount the file system:

# umount /mnt1
Convert the volume into a volume set:

# vxvset -g dg1 make vset1 vol1
Edit the /etc/fstab file to replace the volume device name, vol1, with the
volume set name, vset1.

# mount -t vxfs /dev/vx/dsk/dg1/vset1 /mnt1
As necessary, create and add volumes to the volume set:

# vxassist -g dg1 make vol2 256M
# vxvset -g dg1 addvol vset1 vol2
10 Set the placement class tags on all volumes that do not have a tag:
# vxassist -g dg1 settag vol1 vxfs.placement_class.tier1
# vxassist -g dg1 settag vol2 vxfs.placement_class.tier2
464

Adding a volume to and removing a volume from a multi-volume file system
Adding a volume to and removing a volume from a

multi-volume file system
Use the fsvoladm command to perform the following functions:
Adding a volume to a multi-volume file system
Removing a volume from a multi-volume file system
Use the fsck command to perform the following function:
Forcibly removing a volume in a multi-volume file system
Use the vxassist command to perform the following function:
Moving volume 0 in a multi-volume file system
Adding a volume to a multi-volume file system

Use the fsvoladm add command to add a volume to a multi-volume file system.
To add a volume to a multi-volume file system
Add a new volume to a multi-volume file system:

# fsvoladm add /mnt1 vol2 256m
Removing a volume from a multi-volume file system

Use the fsvoladm remove command to remove a volume from a multi-volume file
system. The fsvoladm remove command fails if the volume being removed is the
first volume with metadataok flag in any allocation policy.
To remove a volume from a multi-volume file system
Remove a volume from a multi-volume file system:

# fsvoladm remove /mnt1 vol2
Forcibly removing a volume in a multi-volume file system

If you must forcibly remove a volume from a file system, such as if a volume is
permanently destroyed and you want to clean up the dangling pointers to the lost
volume, use the fsck -o zapvol=volname command. The zapvol option performs
a full file system check and zaps all inodes that refer to the specified volume. The
fsck command prints the inode numbers of all files that the command destroys;
the file names are not printed. The zapvol option only affects regular files if used
465

on a dataonly volume. However, it could destroy structural files if used on a

metadataok volume, which can make the file system unrecoverable. Therefore, the
zapvol option should be used with caution on metadataok volumes.
Moving volume 0 in a multi-volume file system

Volume 0 in a multi-volume file system cannot be removed from the file system,
but you can move volume 0 to different storage using the vxassist move command.
The vxassist command creates any necessary temporary mirrors and cleans up
the mirrors at the end of the operation.
To move volume 0
Move volume 0:
# vxassist -g mydg move vol1 \!mydg
Multi-volume file system support enables the ability to encapsulate an existing raw
volume and make the volume contents appear as a file in the file system.
Encapsulating a volume involves the following actions:
Adding the volume to an existing volume set.
Adding the volume to the file system using fsvoladm.
Encapsulating a volume
The following example illustrates how to encapsulate a volume.
466

467
To encapsulate a volume
List the volumes:

# vxvset -g dg1 list myvset
VOLUME
vol3
vol2
INDEX
0
1
LENGTH
104857600
104857600
KSTATE
ENABLED
ENABLED
CONTEXT
-
The volume set has two volumes.
Create a third volume and copy the passwd file to the third volume:
# vxassist -g dg1 make dbvol 100m
# dd if=/etc/passwd of=/dev/vx/rdsk/dg1/dbvol count=1
1+0 records in
1+0 records out
The third volume will be used to demonstrate how the volume can be accessed
as a file, as shown later.
Create a file system on the volume set:

# mkfs -t vxfs /dev/vx/rdsk/dg1/myvset
version 10 layout
maxlink supported
Mount the volume set:

# mount -t vxfs /dev/vx/dsk/dg1/myvset /mnt1
Add the new volume to the volume set:

# vxvset -g dg1 addvol myvset dbvol

Encapsulate dbvol:
# fsvoladm encapsulate /mnt1/dbfile dbvol 100m
# ls -l /mnt1/dbfile
-rw------- 1 root other 104857600 May 22 11:30 /mnt1/dbfile
Examine the contents of dbfile to see that it can be accessed as a file:

# head -2 /mnt1/dbfile
root:x:0:1:Super-User:/:/sbin/sh
daemon:x:1:1::/:
The passwd file that was written to the raw volume is now visible in the new
file.
Note: If the encapsulated file is changed in any way, such as if the file is
extended, truncated, or moved with an allocation policy or resized volume, or
the volume is encapsulated with a bias, the file cannot be de-encapsulated.
Deencapsulating a volume
The following example illustrates how to deencapsulate a volume.
To deencapsulate a volume
List the volumes:

# vxvset -g dg1 list myvset
VOLUME
vol1
vol2
dbvol
INDEX
0
1
2
LENGTH
102400
102400
102400
KSTATE
ACTIVE
ACTIVE
ACTIVE
CONTEXT
-
The volume set has three volumes.
Deencapsulate dbvol:
# fsvoladm deencapsulate /mnt1/dbfile

Multi-volume file system feature provides the capability for file-to-volume mapping
and volume-to-file mapping via the fsmap and fsvmap commands. The fsmap
468

command reports the volume name, logical offset, and size of data extents, or the
volume name and size of indirect extents associated with a file on a multi-volume
file system. The fsvmap command maps volumes to the files that have extents on
those volumes.
See the fsmap(1M) and fsvmap(1M) manual pages.
The fsmap command requires open() permission for each file or directory specified.
Root permission is required to report the list of files with extents on a particular
volume.
The following examples show typical uses of the fsmap and fsvmap commands.
Example of using the fsmap command
Use the find command to descend directories recursively and run fsmap on
the list of files:
# find . | fsmap Volume
vol2
vol1
Extent Type
Data
Data
File
./file1
./file2
Example of using the fsvmap command
Report the extents of files on multiple volumes:

# fsvmap /dev/vx/rdsk/fstest/testvset vol1 vol2
vol1
vol1
vol1
vol1
vol2
vol2
/.
/ns2
/ns3
/file1
/file1
/file2
Report the extents of files that have either data or metadata on a single volume
in all Storage Checkpoints, and indicate if the volume has file system metadata:
# fsvmap -mvC /dev/vx/rdsk/fstest/testvset vol1
Meta
Data
Data
Data
Data
Meta
Structural
UNNAMED
UNNAMED
UNNAMED
UNNAMED
UNNAMED
vol1
vol1
vol1
vol1
vol1
vol1
//volume has filesystem metadata//

/.
/ns2
/ns3
/file1
/file1
469

Load balancing
470
Load balancing
An allocation policy with the balance allocation order can be defined and assigned
to files that must have their allocations distributed at random between a set of
specified volumes. Each extent associated with these files are limited to a maximum
size that is defined as the required chunk size in the allocation policy. The distribution
of the extents is mostly equal if none of the volumes are full or disabled.
Load balancing allocation policies can be assigned to individual files or for all files
in the file system. Although intended for balancing data extents across volumes, a
load balancing policy can be assigned as a metadata policy if desired, without any
restrictions.
Note: If a file has both a fixed extent size set and an allocation policy for load
balancing, certain behavior can be expected. If the chunk size in the allocation
policy is greater than the fixed extent size, all extents for the file are limited by the
chunk size. For example, if the chunk size is 16 MB and the fixed extent size is 3
MB, then the largest extent that satisfies both the conditions is 15 MB. If the fixed
extent size is larger than the chunk size, all extents are limited to the fixed extent
size. For example, if the chunk size is 2 MB and the fixed extent size is 3 MB, then
all extents for the file are limited to 3 MB.
Defining and assigning a load balancing allocation policy

The following example defines a load balancing policy and assigns the policy to
the file, /mnt/file.db.
To define and assign the policy
Define the policy by specifying the -o balance and -c options:

# fsapadm define -o balance -c 2m /mnt loadbal vol1 vol2 vol3 vol4
# fsapadm define /mnt meta vol1
Assign the policy:

# fsapadm assignfile /mnt/file.db loadbal meta
Enforce the file:

# fsapadm enforcefile /mnt/file.db

471
Rebalancing extents
Extents can be rebalanced by strictly enforcing the allocation policy. Rebalancing
is generally required when volumes are added or removed from the policy or when
the chunk size is modified. When volumes are removed from the volume set, any
extents on the volumes being removed are automatically relocated to other volumes
within the policy.
The following example redefines a policy that has four volumes by adding two new
volumes, removing an existing volume, and enforcing the policy for rebalancing.
To rebalance extents
Define the policy by specifying the -o balance and -c options:

# fsapadm define -o balance -c 2m /mnt loadbal vol1 vol2 vol4 \
vol5 vol6
Enforce the policy:

# fsapadm enforcefile -f strict /mnt/filedb
Converting a multi-volume file system to a single

volume file system
Because data can be relocated among volumes in a multi-volume file system, you
can convert a multi-volume file system to a traditional, single volume file system by
moving all file system data onto a single volume. Such a conversion is useful to
users who would like to try using a multi-volume file system or SmartTier, but are
not committed to using a multi-volume file system permanently.
There are three restrictions to this operation:
The single volume must be the first volume in the volume set
The first volume must have sufficient space to hold all of the data and file system
metadata
The volume cannot have any allocation policies that restrict the movement of
data
The following procedure converts an existing multi-volume file system, /mnt1, of

the volume set vset1, to a single volume file system, /mnt1, on volume vol1 in
disk group dg1.

Note: Steps 5, 6, 7, and 8 are optional, and can be performed if you prefer to remove
the wrapper of the volume set object.
Converting to a single volume file system
Determine if the first volume in the volume set, which is identified as device
number 0, has the capacity to receive the data from the other volumes that will
be removed:
# df /mnt1
/mnt1
(/dev/vx/dsk/dg1/vol1):16777216 blocks
3443528 files
If the first volume does not have sufficient capacity, grow the volume to a
sufficient size:
# fsvoladm resize /mnt1 vol1 150g
Remove all existing allocation policies:

# fsppadm unassign /mnt1
Remove all volumes except the first volume in the volume set:
# vxvset -g dg1 rmvol vset1 vol2
Before removing a volume, the file system attempts to relocate the files on that
volume. Successful relocation requires space on another volume, and no
allocation policies can be enforced that pin files to that volume. The time for
the command to complete is proportional to the amount of data that must be
relocated.
Unmount the file system:

# umount /mnt1
Remove the volume from the volume set:

472

Edit the /etc/fstab file to replace the volume set name, vset1, with the volume
device name, vol1.

# mount -t vxfs /dev/vx/dsk/dg1/vol1 /mnt1
473
Chapter
26
About SmartTier
Supported SmartTier document type definitions
Placement classes
Administering placement policies
File placement policy grammar
File placement policy rules
Calculating I/O temperature and access temperature
Multiple criteria in file placement policy rule statements
File placement policy rule and statement ordering
File placement policies and extending files
Using SmartTier with solid state disks
Sub-file relocation
About SmartTier
Veritas File System (VxFS) uses multi-tier online storage by way of the SmartTier
feature, which functions on top of multi-volume file systems. Multi-volume file
systems are file systems that occupy two or more virtual volumes. The collection
of volumes is known as a volume set. A volume set is made up of disks or disk
array LUNs belonging to a single Veritas Volume Manager (VxVM) disk group. A
multi-volume file system presents a single name space, making the existence of
multiple volumes transparent to users and applications. Each volume retains a
About SmartTier
separate identity for administrative purposes, making it possible to control the

locations to which individual files are directed.
Note: Some of the commands have changed or been removed between the 4.1
release and the current release to make placement policy management more
user-friendly. The following commands have been removed: fsrpadm, fsmove, and
fssweep. The output of the queryfile, queryfs, and list options of the fsapadm
command now print the allocation order by name instead of number.
In the previous VxFS 5.x releases, SmartTier was known as Dynamic Storage
Tiering.
SmartTier allows administrators of multi-volume VxFS file systems to manage the
placement of files and the placement of portions of files on individual volumes in a
volume set by defining placement policies. Placement policies control both initial
file location and the circumstances under which existing files are relocated. These
placement policies cause the files to which they apply to be created and extended
on specific subsets of a file system's volume set, known as placement classes. The
files are relocated to volumes in other placement classes when they meet the
specified naming, timing, access rate, and storage capacity-related conditions.
You make a VxVM volume part of a placement class by associating a volume tag
with it. For file placement purposes, VxFS treats all of the volumes in a placement
class as equivalent, and balances space allocation across them. A volume may
have more than one tag associated with it. If a volume has multiple tags, the volume
belongs to multiple placement classes and is subject to allocation and relocation
policies that relate to any of the placement classes. Multiple tagging should be used
carefully.
See Placement classes on page 477.
VxFS imposes no capacity, performance, availability, or other constraints on
placement classes. Any volume may be added to any placement class, no matter
what type the volume has nor what types other volumes in the class have. However,
a good practice is to place volumes of similar I/O performance and availability in
the same placement class.
The Using SmartTier Symantec Yellow Book provides additional information
regarding the SmartTier feature, including the value of SmartTier and best practices
for using SmartTier. You can download Using SmartTier from the following Web
page:
http://www.symantec.com/enterprise/yellowbooks/index.jsp
475
About compressing files with SmartTier

You can use the SmartTier feature to compress and uncompress files automatically
based on the rules defined in a placement policy. SmartTier performs the allocation
for compressed or uncompressed extents of the selected files directly from the tier
that is specified in the policy. The selected files get compressed or uncompressed
while relocating to the specified tier of storage.
You can perform in-place compressing of an entire tier, which compresses all of
the uncompressed extents of all of the files on the tier. This operation is useful if a
write or append was performed on a file on this tier, which results in the file having
some uncompressed extents.
SmartTier uses gzip as the default compression algorithm, and 1 MB is the default
block size for compression. These default values are not configurable through an
XML policy file.
SmartTier can compress and uncompress files as specified by a placement policy
in the following ways:
Compress while relocating files from one tier to another in a multi-volume file
system
Uncompress while relocating files from one tier to another in a multi-volume file
system
Compress in-place in a multi-volume file system
Uncompress in-place in multi-volume file system
Compress in-place in single volume file system
Uncompress in-place in single volume file system
Compress an entire tier in multi-volume file system
Uncompress an entire tier in multi-volume file system
See About compressing files on page 572.

Table 26-1 describes which releases of Veritas File System (VxFS) support specific
SmartTier document type definitions (DTDs).
476
Placement classes
Table 26-1

DTD Version
VxFS Version
1.0
1.1
5.0
Supported
Not supported
5.1
Supported
Supported
5.1 SP1
Supported
Supported
6.0
Supported
Supported
6.0.1
Supported
Supported
Placement classes
A placement class is a SmartTier attribute of a given volume in a volume set of a
multi-volume file system. This attribute is a character string, and is known as a
volume tag. A volume can have different tags, one of which can be the placement
class. The placement class tag makes a volume distinguishable by SmartTier.
Volume tags are organized as hierarchical name spaces in which periods separate
the levels of the hierarchy . By convention, the uppermost level in the volume tag
hierarchy denotes the Symantec Storage Foundation component or application that
uses a tag, and the second level denotes the tags purpose. SmartTier recognizes
volume tags of the form vxfs.placement_class.class_name. The prefix vxfs
identifies a tag as being associated with VxFS. The placement_class string
identifies the tag as a file placement class that SmartTier uses. The class_name
string represents the name of the file placement class to which the tagged volume
belongs. For example, a volume with the tag vxfs.placement_class.tier1 belongs
to placement class tier1. Administrators use the vxassist command to associate
tags with volumes.
SmartTier policy rules specify file placement in terms of placement classes rather
than in terms of individual volumes. All volumes that belong to a particular placement
class are interchangeable with respect to file creation and relocation operations.
Specifying file placement in terms of placement classes rather than in terms of
specific volumes simplifies the administration of multi-tier storage.
The administration of multi-tier storage is simplified in the following ways:
Adding or removing volumes does not require a file placement policy change.
If a volume with a tag value of vxfs.placement_class.tier2 is added to a file
systems volume set, all policies that refer to tier2 immediately apply to the
477
Placement classes
newly added volume with no administrative action. Similarly, volumes can be

evacuated, that is, have data removed from them, and be removed from a file
system without a policy change. The active policy continues to apply to the file
systems remaining volumes.
File placement policies are not specific to individual file systems. A file placement
policy can be assigned to any file system whose volume set includes volumes
tagged with the tag values (placement classes) named in the policy. This property
makes it possible for data centers with large numbers of servers to define
standard placement policies and apply them uniformly to all servers with a single
administrative action.
Tagging volumes as placement classes

The following example tags the vsavola volume as placement class tier1, vsavolb
as placement class tier2, vsavolc as placement class tier3, and vsavold as
placement class tier4 using the vxassist settag command.
To tag volumes
Tag the volumes as placement classes:

# vxassist -g cfsdg settag vsavola vxfs.placement_class.tier1
# vxassist -g cfsdg settag vsavolb vxfs.placement_class.tier2
# vxassist -g cfsdg settag vsavolc vxfs.placement_class.tier3
# vxassist -g cfsdg settag vsavold vxfs.placement_class.tier4
Listing placement classes

Placement classes are listed using the vxassist listtag command.
The following example lists all volume tags, including placment classes, set on a
volume vsavola in the diskgroup cfsdg.
To list placement classes
List the volume tags, including placement classes:

# vxassist -g cfsdg listtag vsavola
478

A VxFS file placement policy document contains rules by which VxFS creates,
relocates, and deletes files, but the placement policy does not refer to specific file
systems or volumes. You can create a file system's active file placement policy by
assigning a placement policy document to the file system via the fsppadm command
or the GUI.
See the fsppadm(1M) manual page.
Note: Do not run the fsppadm command simultaneously from different terminals.
The lost+found must exist before you can use the fsppadm command.
At most, one file placement policy can be assigned to a VxFS file system at any
time. A file system may have no file placement policy assigned to it, in which case
VxFS allocates space for new files according to its own internal algorithms.
In systems with Storage Foundation Management Server (SFMS) software installed,
file placement policy information is stored in the SFMS database. The SFMS
database contains both XML policy documents and lists of hosts and file systems
for which each document is the current active policy. When a policy document is
updated, SFMS can assign the updated document to all file systems whose current
active policies are based on that document. By default, SFMS does not update file
system active policies that have been created or modified locally, that is by the
hosts that control the placement policies' file systems. If a SFMS administrator
forces assignment of a placement policy to a file system, the file system's active
placement policy is overwritten and any local changes that had been made to the
placement policy are lost.
You can view sample placement policies in the /opt/VRTSvxfs/etc directory.
These sample placement policies are installed as part of the VxFS rpm installation.
Assigning a placement policy

The following example uses the fsppadm assign command to assign the file
placement policy represented in the XML policy document /tmp/policy1.xml for
the file system at mount point /mnt1.
To assign a placement policy
Assign a placement policy to a file system:

# fsppadm assign /mnt1 /tmp/policy1.xml
479
Unassigning a placement policy

The following example uses the fsppadm unassign command to unassign the
active file placement policy from the file system at mount point /mnt1.
To unassign a placement policy
Unassign the placement policy from a file system:

# fsppadm unassign /mnt1
Analyzing the space impact of enforcing a placement policy

The following example uses the fsppadm analyze command to analyze the impact
if the enforce operation is performed on the file placement policy represented in
the XML policy document /tmp/policy1.xml for the mount point /mnt1. The
command builds the I/O temperature database if necessary.
To analyze the space impact of enforcing a placement policy
Analyze the impact of enforcing the file placement policy represented in the
XML policy document /tmp/policy1.xml for the mount point /mnt1:
# fsppadm analyze -F /tmp/policy1.xml -i /mnt1
Querying which files will be affected by enforcing a placement policy

The following example uses the fsppadm query command to generate a list of files
that will be affected by enforcing a placement policy. The command provides details
about where the files currently reside, to where the files will be relocated, and which
rule in the placement policy applies to the files.
To query which files will be affected by enforcing a placement policy
Query the files that will be affected:

# fsppadm query /mnt1/dir1/dir2 /mnt2 /mnt1/dir3
Enforcing a placement policy

Enforcing a placement policy for a file system requires that the policy be assigned
to the file system. You must assign a placement policy before it can be enforced.
See Assigning a placement policy on page 479.
Enforce operations are logged in a hidden file, .__fsppadm_enforce.log, in the
lost+found directory of the mount point. This log file contains details such as files'
480
previous locations, the files' new locations, and the reasons for the files' relocations.
The enforce operation creates the .__fsppadm_enforce.log file if the file does not
exist. The enforce operation appends the file if the file already exists. The
.__fsppadm_enforce.log file can be backed up or removed as with a normal file.
You can specify the -F option to specify a placement policy other than the existing
active placement policy. This option can be used to enforce the rules given in the
specified placement policy for maintenance purposes, such as for reclaiming a LUN
from the file system.
You can specify the -p option to specify the number of concurrent threads to be
used to perform the fsppadm operation. You specify the io_nice parameter as an
integer between 1 and 100, with 50 being the default value. A value of 1 specifies
1 slave and 1 master thread per mount. A value of 50 specifies 16 slaves and 1
master thread per mount. A value of 100 specifies 32 slaves and 1 master thread
per mount.
You can specify the -C option so that the fsppadm command processes only those
files that have some activity stats logged in the File Change Log (FCL) file during
the period specified in the placement policy. You can use the -C option only if the
policys ACCESSTEMP or IOTEMP elements use the Prefer criteria.
You can specify the -T option to specify the placement classes that contain files
for the fsppadm command to sweep and relocate selectively. You can specify the
-T option only if the policy uses the Prefer criteria forIOTEMP.
The following example uses the fsppadm enforce command to enforce the file
placement policy for the file system at mount point /mnt1, and includes the access
time, modification time, and file size of the specified paths in the report, /tmp/report.
481
482
To enforce a placement policy
Enforce a placement policy for a file system:

# fsppadm enforce -a -r /tmp/report /mnt1
Current Current
Class
Volume
tier3
vole
tier3
vole
tier3
vole
tier3
volf
.
.
.
Sweep path
:
Files moved
:
KB moved
:
Relocated
Class
tier3
tier3
tier3
tier3
Tier Name
tier4
tier3
tier2
tier1
Size (KB)
524288
524288
524288
524288
Relocated
Volume
vole
vole
vole
volf
Rule
a_to_z
a_to_z
a_to_z
a_to_z
File
/mnt1/mds1/d1/file1
/mnt1/mds1/d1/file2
/mnt1/mds1/d1/d2/file3
/mnt1/mds1/d1/d2/file4
/mnt1
42
1267
Free Before (KB)

524256
522968
524256
502188
Free After (KB)

524256
522968
524256
501227
Validating a placement policy

The following example uses the fsppadm validate command to validate the
placement policy policy.xml against all mounted file systems.
To validate a placement policy against all mounted file systems
Validate the placement policy:

# fsppadm validate /tmp/policy.xml

VxFS allocates and relocates files within a multi-volume file system based on
properties in the file system metadata that pertains to the files. Placement decisions
may be based on file name, directory of residence, time of last access, access
frequency, file size, and ownership. An individual file system's criteria for allocating
and relocating files are expressed in the file system's file placement policy.
A VxFS file placement policy defines the desired placement of sets of files on the
volumes of a VxFS multi-volume file system. A file placement policy specifies the
placement classes of volumes on which files should be created, and where and
under what conditions the files should be relocated to volumes in alternate placement
classes or deleted. You can create file placement policy documents, which are XML
text files, using an XML editor, a text editor, or Veritas Operations Manager (VOM).
See the /opt/VRTSvxfs/etc/placement_policy.dtd file for the overall structure
of a placement policy.

A VxFS file placement policy consists of one or more rules. Each rule applies to
one or more files. The files to which a rule applies are designated in one or more
SELECT statements. A SELECT statement designates files according to one or more
of four properties: their names or naming patterns, the directories in which they
reside, their owners' user names, and their owners' group names.
A file may be designated by more than one rule. For example, if one rule designates
files in directory /dir, and another designates files owned by user1, a file in /dir
that is owned by user1 is designated by both rules. Only the rule that appears first
in the placement policy applies to the file; subsequent rules are ignored.
You can define placement policies that do not encompass the entire file system
name space. When a file that is not designated by any rule in its file system's active
placement policy is created, VxFS places the file according to its own internal
algorithms. To maintain full control over file placement, include a catchall rule at
the end of each placement policy document with a SELECT statement that designates
files by the naming pattern *. Such a rule designates all files that have not been
designated by the rules appearing earlier in the placement policy document.
Two types of rules exist: data and ckpt. The data rule type allows SmartTier to
relocate normal data files. The ckpt rule type allows SmartTier to relocate Storage
Checkpoints. You specify the rule type by setting the Flags attribute for the rule.
SELECT statement
The VxFS placement policy rule SELECT statement designates the collection of files
to which a rule applies.
The following XML snippet illustrates the general form of the SELECT statement:
<SELECT>
<DIRECTORY Flags="directory_flag_value"> value
</DIRECTORY>
483
<PATTERN Flags="pattern_flag_value"> value </PATTERN>

<USER> value </USER>
<GROUP> value </GROUP>
</SELECT>
A SELECT statement may designate files by using the following selection criteria:
<DIRECTORY>
A full path name relative to the file system mount point. The
Flags="directory_flag_value" XML attribute must have a value
of nonrecursive, denoting that only files in the specified directory
are designated, or a value of recursive, denoting that files in all
subdirectories of the specified directory are designated. The Flags
attribute is mandatory.
The <DIRECTORY> criterion is optional, and may be specified more
than once.
<PATTERN>
Either an exact file name or a pattern using a single wildcard character

(*). For example, the pattern abc*" denotes all files whose names begin
with abc". The pattern abc.*" denotes all files whose names are exactly
"abc" followed by a period and any extension. The pattern *abc"
denotes all files whose names end in abc", even if the name is all or
part of an extension. The pattern *.abc" denotes files of any name
whose name extension (following the period) is abc". The pattern ab*c"
denotes all files whose names start with ab" and end with c". The first
"*" character is treated as a wildcard, while any subsequent "*"
characters are treated as literal text. The pattern cannot contain "/".
The wildcard character matches any character, including ".", "?", and
"[", unlike using the wildcard in a shell.
The Flags="pattern_flag_value" XML attribute is optional, and
if specified can only have a value of recursive. Specify
Flags="recursive" only if the pattern is a directory. If Flags is not
specified, the default attribute value is nonrecursive. If
Flags="recursive" is specified, the enclosing selection criteria
selects all files in any component directory that is anywhere below the
directory specified by <DIRECTORY> if the component directory matches
the pattern and either of the following is true:
<DIRECTORY> is specified and has the recursive flag.
<DIRECTORY> is not specified and the directory is anywhere in the

file system.
If the pattern contains the wildcard character (*), wildcard character

matching is performed.
The <PATTERN> criterion is optional, and may be specified more than
once. Only one value can be specified per <PATTERN> element.
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<USER>
User name of the file's owner. The user number cannot be specified in
place of the name.
The <USER> criterion is optional, and may be specified more than once.
<GROUP>
Group name of the file's owner. The group number cannot be specified
in place of the group name.
The <GROUP> criterion is optional, and may be specified more than
once.
One or more instances of any or all of the file selection criteria may be specified
within a single SELECT statement. If two or more selection criteria of different types
are specified in a single statement, a file must satisfy one criterion of each type to
be selected.
In the following example, only files that reside in either the ora/db or the crash/dump
directory, and whose owner is either user1 or user2 are selected for possible action:
<SELECT>
<DIRECTORY Flags="nonrecursive">ora/db</DIRECTORY>
<DIRECTORY Flags="nonrecursive">crash/dump</DIRECTORY>
<USER>user1</USER>
<USER>user2</USER>
</SELECT>
A rule may include multiple SELECT statements. If a file satisfies the selection criteria
of one of the SELECT statements, it is eligible for action.
In the following example, any files owned by either user1 or user2, no matter in
which directories they reside, as well as all files in the ora/db or crash/dump
directories, no matter which users own them, are eligible for action:
<SELECT>
<DIRECTORY Flags="nonrecursive">ora/db</DIRECTORY>
<DIRECTORY Flags="nonrecursive">crash/dump</DIRECTORY>
</SELECT>
<SELECT>
<USER>user1</USER>
<USER>user2</USER>
</SELECT>
When VxFS creates new files, VxFS applies active placement policy rules in the
order of appearance in the active placement policy's XML source file. The first rule
in which a SELECT statement designates the file to be created determines the file's
placement; no later rules apply. Similarly, VxFS scans the active policy rules on
behalf of each file when relocating files, stopping the rules scan when it reaches
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the first rule containing a SELECT statement that designates the file. This behavior
holds true even if the applicable rule results in no action. Take for example a policy
rule that indicates that .dat files inactive for 30 days should be relocated, and a
later rule indicates that .dat files larger than 10 megabytes should be relocated.
A 20 megabyte .dat file that has been inactive for 10 days will not be relocated
because the earlier rule applied. The later rule is never scanned.
A placement policy rule's action statements apply to all files designated by any of
the rule's SELECT statements. If an existing file is not designated by a SELECT
statement in any rule of a file system's active placement policy, then SmartTier
does not relocate or delete the file. If an application creates a file that is not
designated by a SELECT statement in a rule of the file system's active policy, then
VxFS places the file according to its own internal algorithms. If this behavior is
inappropriate, the last rule in the policy document on which the file system's active
placement policy is based should specify <PATTERN>*</PATTERN> as the only
selection criterion in its SELECT statement, and a CREATE statement naming the
desired placement class for files not selected by other rules.
CREATE statement
A CREATE statement in a file placement policy rule specifies one or more placement
classes of volumes on which VxFS should allocate space for new files to which the
rule applies at the time the files are created. You can specify only placement classes,
not individual volume names, in a CREATE statement.
A file placement policy rule may contain at most one CREATE statement. If a rule
does not contain a CREATE statement, VxFS places files designated by the rule's
SELECT statements according to its internal algorithms. However, rules without
CREATE statements can be used to relocate or delete existing files that the rules'
SELECT statements designate.
The following XML snippet illustrates the general form of the CREATE statement:
<CREATE>
<ON Flags="flag_value">
<DESTINATION>
<CLASS> placement_class_name </CLASS>
<BALANCE_SIZE Units="units_specifier"> chunk_size
</BALANCE_SIZE>
</DESTINATION>
<DESTINATION> additional_placement_class_specifications
</DESTINATION>
</ON>
</CREATE>
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A CREATE statement includes a single <ON> clause, in which one or more

<DESTINATION> XML elements specify placement classes for initial file allocation
in order of decreasing preference. VxFS allocates space for new files to which a
rule applies on a volume in the first class specified, if available space permits. If
space cannot be allocated on any volume in the first class, VxFS allocates space
on a volume in the second class specified if available space permits, and so forth.
If space cannot be allocated on any volume in any of the placement classes
specified, file creation fails with an ENOSPC error, even if adequate space is available
elsewhere in the file system's volume set. This situation can be circumvented by
specifying a Flags attribute with a value of "any" in the <ON> clause. If <ON
Flags="any"> is specified in a CREATE statement, VxFS first attempts to allocate
space for new files to which the rule applies on the specified placement classes.
Failing that, VxFS resorts to its internal space allocation algorithms, so file allocation
does not fail unless there is no available space any-where in the file system's volume
set.
The Flags="any" attribute differs from the catchall rule in that this attribute applies
only to files designated by the SELECT statement in the rule, which may be less
inclusive than the <PATTERN>*</PATTERN> file selection specification of the catchall
rule.
In addition to the placement class name specified in the <CLASS> sub-element, a
<DESTINATION> XML element may contain a <BALANCE_SIZE> sub-element.
Presence of a <BALANCE_SIZE> element indicates that space allocation should be
distributed across the volumes of the placement class in chunks of the indicated
size. For example, if a balance size of one megabyte is specified for a placement
class containing three volumes, VxFS allocates the first megabyte of space for a
new or extending file on the first (lowest indexed) volume in the class, the second
megabyte on the second volume, the third megabyte on the third volume, the fourth
megabyte on the first volume, and so forth. Using the Units attribute in the
<BALANCE_SIZE> XML tag, the balance size value may be specified in the following
units:
bytes
Bytes
KB
Kilobytes
MB
Megabytes
GB
Gigabytes
The <BALANCE_SIZE> element distributes the allocation of database files across

the volumes in a placement class. In principle, distributing the data in each file
across multiple volumes distributes the I/O load across the volumes as well.
487
The CREATE statement in the following example specifies that files to which the rule
applies should be created on the tier1 volume if space is available, and on one
of the tier2 volumes if not. If space allocation on tier1 and tier2 volumes is not
possible, file creation fails, even if space is available on tier3 volumes.
<CREATE>
<ON>
<DESTINATION>
<CLASS>tier1</CLASS>
</DESTINATION>
<DESTINATION>
<BALANCE_SIZE Units="MB">1</BALANCE_SIZE>
</DESTINATION>
</ON>
</CREATE>
The <BALANCE_SIZE> element with a value of one megabyte is specified for

allocations on tier2 volumes. For files allocated on tier2 volumes, the first
megabyte would be allocated on the first volume, the second on the second volume,
and so forth.
RELOCATE statement
The RELOCATE action statement of file placement policy rules specifies an action
that VxFS takes on designated files during periodic scans of the file system, and
the circumstances under which the actions should be taken. The fsppadm enforce
command is used to scan all or part of a file system for files that should be relocated
based on rules in the active placement policy at the time of the scan.
The fsppadm enforce command scans file systems in path name order. For each
file, VxFS identifies the first applicable rule in the active placement policy, as
determined by the rules' SELECT statements. If the file resides on a volume specified
in the <FROM> clause of one of the rule's RELOCATE statements, and if the file meets
the criteria for relocation specified in the statement's <WHEN> clause, the file is
scheduled for relocation to a volume in the first placement class listed in the <TO>
clause that has space available for the file. The scan that results from issuing the
fsppadm enforce command runs to completion before any files are relocated.
The following XML snippet illustrates the general form of the RELOCATE statement:
<RELOCATE>
<FROM>
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<SOURCE>
</SOURCE>
<SOURCE> additional_placement_class_specifications
</SOURCE>
</FROM>
<TO>
<DESTINATION>
<BALANCE_SIZE Units="units_specifier">
chunk_size
</BALANCE_SIZE>
</DESTINATION>
<DESTINATION>
additional_placement_class_specifications
</DESTINATION>
</TO>
<WHEN> relocation_conditions </WHEN>
</RELOCATE>
A RELOCATE statement contains the following clauses:
<FROM> An optional clause that contains a list of placement classes from whose
volumes designated files should be relocated if the files meet the conditions
specified in the <WHEN> clause. No priority is associated with the ordering of
placement classes listed in a <FROM> clause. If a file to which the rule applies is
located on a volume in any specified placement class, the file is considered for
relocation.
If a RELOCATE statement contains a <FROM> clause, VxFS only considers files
that reside on volumes in placement classes specified in the clause for relocation.
If no <FROM> clause is present, qualifying files are relocated regardless of where
the files reside.
<TO> Indicates the placement classes to which qualifying files should be
relocated. Unlike the source placement class list in a FROM clause, placement
classes in a <TO>clause are specified in priority order. Files are relocated to
volumes in the first specified placement class if possible, to the second if not,
and so forth.
The <TO> clause of the RELOCATE statement contains a list of <DESTINATION>
XML elements specifying placement classes to whose volumes VxFS relocates
qualifying files. Placement classes are specified in priority order. VxFS relocates
qualifying files to volumes in the first placement class specified as long as space
is available. A <DESTINATION> element may contain an optional <BALANCE_SIZE>
modifier sub-element. The <BALANCE_SIZE> modifier indicates that relocated
489
files should be distributed across the volumes of the destination placement class
in chunks of the indicated size. For example, if a balance size of one megabyte
is specified for a placement class containing three volumes, VxFS relocates the
first megabyte the file to the first (lowest indexed) volume in the class, the second
megabyte to the second volume, the third megabyte to the third volume, the
fourth megabyte to the first volume, and so forth. Using the Units attribute in the
<BALANCE_SIZE> XML tag, the chunk value may be specified in the balance size
value may be specified in bytes (Units="bytes"), kilobytes (Units="KB"),
megabytes (Units="MB"), or gigabytes (Units="GB").
The <BALANCE_SIZE> element distributes the allocation of database files across
the volumes in a placement class. In principle, distributing the data in each file
across multiple volumes distributes the I/O load across the volumes as well.
For a multi-volume file system, you can specify the compress flag or the
uncompress flag with the <TO> clause. The compress flag causes SmartTier to
compress a file's extents while relocating the file to the tier specified by the
<DESTINATION> element. SmartTier compresses the entire file and relocates
the file to the destination tier, even if the file spans multiple tiers. The uncompress
flag causes SmartTier to uncompress a file's extents while relocating the file to
the tier specified by the <DESTINATION> element.
The following XML snippet specifies the compress flag:
<TO Flags="compress">
<DESTINATION>
<CLASS> tier4 </CLASS>
</DESTINATION>
</TO>
The following XML snippet specifies the uncompress flag:

<TO Flags="uncompress">
<DESTINATION>
</DESTINATION>
</TO>
<WHEN> An optional clause that indicates the conditions under which files to
which the rule applies should be relocated. Files that have been unaccessed or
unmodified for a specified period, reached a certain size, or reached a specific
I/O temperature or access temperature level may be relocated. If a RELOCATE
statement does not contain a <WHEN> clause, files to which the rule applies are
relocated unconditionally.
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A <WHEN>clause may be included in a RELOCATE statement to specify that files

should be relocated only if any or all of four types of criteria are met. Files can
be specified for relocation if they satisfy one or more criteria.
The following are the criteria that can be specified for the <WHEN> clause:
<ACCAGE>
This criterion is met when files are inactive for a designated period
or during a designated period relative to the time at which the
fsppadm enforce command was issued.
<MODAGE>
This criterion is met when files are unmodified for a designated

period or during a designated period relative to the time at which
the fsppadm enforce command was issued.
<SIZE>
This criterion is met when files exceed or drop below a designated

size or fall within a designated size range.
<IOTEMP>

I/O temperature, or fall within a designated I/O temperature range.
A file's I/O temperature is a measure of the I/O activity against it
during the period designated by the <PERIOD>element prior to the
time at which the fsppadm enforce command was issued.
See Calculating I/O temperature and access temperature
on page 524.
<ACCESSTEMP>
This criterion is met when files exceed or drop below a specified

average access temperature, or fall within a specified access
temperature range. A file's access temperature is similar to its I/O
temperature, except that access temperature is computed using the
number of I/O requests to the file, rather than the number of bytes
transferred.
Note: The use of <IOTEMP> and <ACCESSTEMP> for data placement on VxFS servers
that are used as NFS servers may not be very effective due to NFS caching. NFS
client side caching and the way that NFS works can result in I/O initiated from an
NFS client not producing NFS server side I/O. As such, any temperature
measurements in place on the server side will not correctly reflect the I/O behavior
that is specified by the placement policy.
If the server is solely used as an NFS server, this problem can potentially be
mitigated by suitably adjusting or lowering the temperature thresholds. However,
adjusting the thresholds may not always create the desired effect. In addition, if the
same mount point is used both as an NFS export as well as a local mount, the
temperature-based placement decisions will not be very effective due to the NFS
cache skew.
491
492
The following XML snippet illustrates the general form of the <WHEN> clause in a
RELOCATE statement:
<WHEN>
<ACCAGE Units="units_value">
<MIN Flags="comparison_operator">
min_access_age</MIN>
<MAX Flags="comparison_operator">
max_access_age</MAX>
</ACCAGE>
<MODAGE Units="units_value">
min_modification_age</MIN>
max_modification_age</MAX>
</MODAGE>
<SIZE " Units="units_value">
min_size</MIN>
max_size</MAX>
</SIZE>
<IOTEMP Type="read_write_preference" Prefer="temperature_preference">
min_I/O_temperature</MIN>
max_I/O_temperature</MAX>
<PERIOD Units="days_or_hours"> days_or_hours_of_interest </PERIOD>
</IOTEMP>
<ACCESSTEMP Type="read_write_preference"
Prefer="temperature_preference">
min_access_temperature</MIN>
max_access_temperature</MAX>
</ACCESSTEMP>
</WHEN>
The access age (<ACCAGE>) element refers to the amount of time since a file was
last accessed. VxFS computes access age by subtracting a file's time of last access,
atime, from the time when the fsppadm enforce command was issued. The <MIN>
and <MAX> XML elements in an <ACCAGE> clause, denote the minimum and maximum
access age thresholds for relocation, respectively. These elements are optional,
but at least one must be included. Using the Units XML attribute, the <MIN> and
<MAX> elements may be specified in the following units:
hours
Hours
days
Days. A day is considered to be 24 hours prior to the time that the

Both the <MIN> and <MAX> elements require Flags attributes to direct their operation.
For <MIN>, the following Flags attributes values may be specified:
gt
The time of last access must be greater than the specified interval.
eq
The time of last access must be equal to the specified interval.
gteq
The time of last access must be greater than or equal to the specified
interval.
For <MAX>, the following Flags attributes values may be specified.

lt
The time of last access must be less than the specified interval.
lteq
The time of last access must be less than or equal to the specified
interval.
Including a <MIN> element in a <WHEN> clause causes VxFS to relocate files to which
the rule applies that have been inactive for longer than the specified interval. Such
a rule would typically be used to relocate inactive files to less expensive storage
tiers. Conversely, including <MAX> causes files accessed within the specified interval
to be relocated. It would typically be used to move inactive files against which activity
had recommenced to higher performance or more reliable storage. Including both
<MIN> and <MAX> causes VxFS to relocate files whose access age lies between
the two.
The modification age relocation criterion, <MODAGE>, is similar to access age, except
that files' POSIX mtime values are used in computations. You would typically specify
the <MODAGE> criterion to cause relocation of recently modified files to higher
performance or more reliable storage tiers in anticipation that the files would be
accessed recurrently in the near future.
The file size relocation criterion, <SIZE>, causes files to be relocated if the files are
larger or smaller than the values specified in the <MIN> and <MAX> relocation criteria,
respectively, at the time that the fsppadm enforce command was issued. Specifying
both criteria causes VxFS to schedule relocation for files whose sizes lie between
493
the two. Using the Units attribute, threshold file sizes may be specified in the
following units:
bytes
Bytes
KB
Kilobytes
MB
Megabytes
GB
Gigabytes
Specifying the I/O temperature relocation criterion

The I/O temperature relocation criterion, <IOTEMP>, causes files to be relocated if
their I/O temperatures rise above or drop below specified values over a specified
period immediately prior to the time at which the fsppadm enforce command was
issued. A file's I/O temperature is a measure of the read, write, or total I/O activity
against it normalized to the file's size. Higher I/O temperatures indicate higher levels
of application activity; lower temperatures indicate lower levels. VxFS computes a
file's I/O temperature by dividing the number of bytes transferred to or from it (read,
written, or both) during the specified period by its size at the time that the fsppadm
enforce command was issued.
See Calculating I/O temperature and access temperature on page 524.
As with the other file relocation criteria, <IOTEMP> may be specified with a lower
threshold by using the <MIN> element, an upper threshold by using the <MAX>
element, or as a range by using both. However, I/O temperature is dimensionless
and therefore has no specification for units.
VxFS computes files' I/O temperatures over the period between the time when the
fsppadm enforce command was issued and the number of days or hours in the
past specified in the <PERIOD> element, where a day is a 24 hour period. The default
unit of time is days. You can specify hours as the time unit by setting the Units
attribute of the <PERIOD> element to hours. Symantec recommends that you specify
hours only if you are using solid state disks (SSDs).
See Frequent SmartTier scans with solid state disks on page 536.
For example, if you issued the fsppadm enforce command at 2 PM on Wednesday
and you want VxFS to look at file I/O activity for the period between 2 PM on Monday
and 2 PM on Wednesday, which is a period of 2 days, you would specify the
following <PERIOD> element:
<PERIOD> 2 </PERIOD>
494
If you instead want VxFS to look at file I/O activity between 3 hours prior to running
the fsppadm enforce command and the time that you ran the command, you specify
the following <PERIOD> element:
<PERIOD Units="hours"> 3 </PERIOD>
The amount of time specified in the <PERIOD> element should not exceed one or
two weeks due to the disk space used by the File Change Log (FCL) file.
See About the Veritas File System File Change Log file on page 710.
I/O temperature is a softer measure of I/O activity than access age. With access
age, a single access to a file resets the file's atime to the current time. In contrast,
a file's I/O temperature decreases gradually as time passes without the file being
accessed, and increases gradually as the file is accessed periodically. For example,
if a new 10 megabyte file is read completely five times on Monday and fsppadm
enforce runs at midnight, the file's two-day I/O temperature will be five and its
access age in days will be zero. If the file is read once on Tuesday, the file's access
age in days at midnight will be zero, and its two-day I/O temperature will have
dropped to three. If the file is read once on Wednesday, the file's access age at
midnight will still be zero, but its two-day I/O temperature will have dropped to one,
as the influence of Monday's I/O will have disappeared.
If the intention of a file placement policy is to keep files in place, such as on top-tier
storage devices, as long as the files are being accessed at all, then access age is
the more appropriate relocation criterion. However, if the intention is to relocate
files as the I/O load on them decreases, then I/O temperature is more appropriate.
The case for upward relocation is similar. If files that have been relocated to
lower-tier storage devices due to infrequent access experience renewed application
activity, then it may be appropriate to relocate those files to top-tier devices. A policy
rule that uses access age with a low <MAX> value, that is, the interval between
fsppadm enforce runs, as a relocation criterion will cause files to be relocated that
have been accessed even once during the interval. Conversely, a policy that uses
I/O temperature with a <MIN> value will only relocate files that have experienced a
sustained level of activity over the period of interest.
Prefer attribute
You can specify a value for the Prefer attribute for the <IOTEMP> and <ACCESSTEMP>
criteria, which gives preference to relocating files. The Prefer attribute can take
two values: low or high. If you specify low, Veritas File System (VxFS) relocates
the files with the lower I/O temperature before relocating the files with the higher
I/O temperature. If you specify high, VxFS relocates the files with the higher I/O
temperature before relocating the files with the lower I/O temperature. Symantec
495
recommends that you specify a Prefer attribute value only if you are using solid
state disks (SSDs).
See Prefer mechanism with solid state disks on page 535.
Different <PERIOD> elements may be used in the <IOTEMP> and <ACCESSTEMP>
criteria of different RELOCATE statements within the same policy.
The following placement policy snippet gives an example of the Prefer criteria:
<RELOCATE>
...
<WHEN>
<IOTEMP Type="nrbytes" Prefer="high">
<MIN Flags="gteq"> 3.4 </MIN>
</IOTEMP>
</WHEN>
</RELOCATE>
If there are a number of files whose I/O temperature is greater than the given
minimum value, the files with the higher temperature are first subject to the RELOCATE
operation before the files with the lower temperature.
Average I/O activity criteria

The Average criteria allows you to specify the value of the I/O temperature as a
ratio of per-file activity that occurs over the time specified by the <PERIOD> element
compared to the overall file system activity that occurs over a longer period of time.
The <PERIOD> element in the RELOCATE criteria specifies the a number of hours or
days immediately before the time of the scan. During that time, the I/O statistics
that are collected are used to process the files that are being scanned. Since I/O
activity can change over time, collect the average I/O activity over a longer duration
than the <PERIOD> value itself, which is by default 24 hours. Doing so lets you
compute an average temperature of the whole file system. Symantec recommends
that you specify an Average attribute value only if you are using solid state disks
(SSDs).
See Average I/O activity with solid state disks on page 536.
The following placement policy snippet gives an example of the Average criteria:
<RELOCATE>
...
<WHEN>
<IOTEMP Type="nrbytes" Prefer="high" Average="*">
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497

</IOTEMP>
</WHEN>
</RELOCATE>
In the snippet, VxFS relocates any file whose read IOTEMP over the last 6 hours
is 1.5 times that of all the active files in the whole file system over the last 24 hours.
This Average criteria is more intuitive and easier to specify than the absolute values.
The following formula computes the read IOTEMP of a given file:
IOTEMP = (bytes of the file that are read in the PERIOD) /
(PERIOD in hours * size of the file in bytes)
The write and read/write IOTEMP are also computed accordingly.

The following formula computes the average read IOTEMP:
Average IOTEMP = (bytes read of all active files in the last h hours) /
(h * size of all the active files in bytes)
h is 24 hours by default. The average write and read/write IOTEMP are also
computed accordingly.
In the example snippet, the value 1.5 is the multiple of average read IOTEMP over
the last 24 hours across the whole file system, or rather across all of the active
inodes whose activity is still available in the File Change Log (FCL) file at the time
of the scan. Thus, the files read IOTEMP activity over the last 6 hours is compared
against 1.5 times that of the last 24 hours average activity to make the relocation
decision. Using this method eliminates the need to give a specific number for the
<IOTEMP> or <ACCESSTEMP> criteria, and instead lets you specify a multiple of the
Average temperature. Keeping this averaging period longer than the specified
<PERIOD> value normalizes the effects of any spikes and lulls in the file activity.
You can also use the Average criteria with the <ACCESSTEMP> criteria. The purpose
and usage are the same.
You determine the type of the average by whether you specify the Average criteria
with the <IOTEMP> or with the <ACCESSTEMP> criteria. The Average criteria can be
any of the following types, depending on the criteria used:
read Average IOTEMP
write Average IOTEMP
rw Average IOTEMP
read Average ACCESSTEMP
write Average ACCESSTEMP
rw Average ACCESSTEMP
The default Average is a 24 hour average temperature, which is the total of all of
the temperatures available up to the last 24 hours in the FCL file, divided by the
number of files for which such I/O statistics still exist in the FCL file. You can override
the number of hours by specifying the AveragePeriod attribute in the
<PLACEMENT_POLICY> element. Symantec recommends that you specify an
AveragePeriod attribute value only if you are using solid state disks (SSDs).
The following example statement causes the average file system activity be collected
and computed over a period of 30 hours instead of the default 24 hours:
<PLACEMENT_POLICY Name="Policy1" Version="5.1" AveragePeriod="30">
RELOCATE statement examples

The following example illustrates an unconditional relocation statement, which is
the simplest form of the RELOCATE policy rule statement:
<RELOCATE>
<FROM>
<SOURCE>
</SOURCE>
</FROM>
<TO>
<DESTINATION>
</DESTINATION>
</TO>
</RELOCATE>
The files designated by the rule's SELECT statement that reside on volumes in
placement class tier1 at the time the fsppadm enforce command executes would
be unconditionally relocated to volumes in placement class tier2 as long as space
permitted. This type of rule might be used, for example, with applications that create
and access new files but seldom access existing files once they have been
processed. A CREATE statement would specify creation on tier1 volumes, which
are presumably high performance or high availability, or both. Each instantiation of
fsppadm enforce would relocate files created since the last run to tier2 volumes.
The following example illustrates a more comprehensive form of the RELOCATE
statement that uses access age as the criterion for relocating files from tier1
volumes to tier2 volumes. This rule is designed to maintain free space on tier1
volumes by relocating inactive files to tier2 volumes:
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<RELOCATE>
<FROM>
<SOURCE>
</SOURCE>
</FROM>
<TO>
<DESTINATION>
</DESTINATION>
</TO>
<WHEN>
<SIZE Units="MB">
<MIN Flags="gt">1</MIN>
<MAX Flags="lt">1000</MAX>
</SIZE>
<ACCAGE Units="days">
</ACCAGE>
</WHEN>
</RELOCATE>
Files designated by the rule's SELECT statement are relocated from tier1 volumes
to tier2 volumes if they are between 1 MB and 1000 MB in size and have not been
accessed for 30 days. VxFS relocates qualifying files in the order in which it
encounters them as it scans the file system's directory tree. VxFS stops scheduling
qualifying files for relocation when when it calculates that already-scheduled
relocations would result in tier2 volumes being fully occupied.
The following example illustrates a possible companion rule that relocates files from
tier2 volumes to tier1 ones based on their I/O temperatures. This rule might be
used to return files that had been relocated to tier2 volumes due to inactivity to
tier1 volumes when application activity against them increases. Using I/O
temperature rather than access age as the relocation criterion reduces the chance
of relocating files that are not actually being used frequently by applications. This
rule does not cause files to be relocated unless there is sustained activity against
them over the most recent two-day period.
<RELOCATE>
<FROM>
<SOURCE>
</SOURCE>
</FROM>
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<TO>
<DESTINATION>
</DESTINATION>
</TO>
<WHEN>
<IOTEMP Type="nrbytes">
<PERIOD>2</PERIOD>
</IOTEMP>
</WHEN>
</RELOCATE>
This rule relocates files that reside on tier2 volumes to tier1 volumes if their I/O
temperatures are above 5 for the two day period immediately preceding the issuing
of the fsppadm enforce command. VxFS relocates qualifying files in the order in
which it encounters them during its file system directory tree scan. When tier1
volumes are fully occupied, VxFS stops scheduling qualifying files for relocation.
VxFS file placement policies are able to control file placement across any number
of placement classes. The following example illustrates a rule for relocating files
with low I/O temperatures from tier1 volumes to tier2 volumes, and to tier3
volumes when tier2 volumes are fully occupied:
<RELOCATE>
<FROM>
<SOURCE>
</SOURCE>
</FROM>
<TO>
<DESTINATION>
</DESTINATION>
<DESTINATION>
</DESTINATION>
</TO>
<WHEN>
<PERIOD>3</PERIOD>
</IOTEMP>
500
</WHEN>
</RELOCATE>
This rule relocates files whose 3-day I/O temperatures are less than 4 and which
reside on tier1 volumes. When VxFS calculates that already-relocated files would
result in tier2 volumes being fully occupied, VxFS relocates qualifying files to
tier3 volumes instead. VxFS relocates qualifying files as it encounters them in its
scan of the file system directory tree.
The <FROM> clause in the RELOCATE statement is optional. If the clause is not present,
VxFS evaluates files designated by the rule's SELECT statement for relocation no
matter which volumes they reside on when the fsppadm enforce command is
issued. The following example illustrates a fragment of a policy rule that relocates
files according to their sizes, no matter where they reside when the fsppadm
enforce command is issued:
<RELOCATE>
<TO>
<DESTINATION>
</DESTINATION>
</TO>
<WHEN>
<SIZE Units="MB">
</SIZE>
</WHEN>
</RELOCATE>
<RELOCATE>
<TO>
<DESTINATION>
</DESTINATION>
</TO>
<WHEN>
<SIZE Units="MB">
<MIN Flags="gteq">10</MIN>
</SIZE>
</WHEN>
</RELOCATE>
<RELOCATE>
<TO>
<DESTINATION>
501
</DESTINATION>
</TO>
<WHEN>
<SIZE Units="MB">
<MIN Flags="gteq">100</MIN>
</SIZE>
</WHEN>
</RELOCATE>
This rule relocates files smaller than 10 megabytes to tier1 volumes, files between
10 and 100 megabytes to tier2 volumes, and files larger than 100 megabytes to
tier3 volumes. VxFS relocates all qualifying files that do not already reside on
volumes in their DESTINATION placement classes when the fsppadm enforce
command is issued.
The following example compresses while relocating all of the files from tier2 with
the extension dbf to tier4 if the file was accessed over 30 days ago:
<SELECT Flags="Data">
<PATTERN> *.dbf </PATTERN>
</SELECT>
<RELOCATE>
<FROM>
<SOURCE>
</SOURCE>
</FROM>
<TO Flags="compress">
<DESTINATION>
</DESTINATION>
</TO>
<WHEN>
</ACCAGE>
</WHEN>
</RELOCATE>
The following example uncompresses while relocating all of the files from tier3
with the extension dbf to tier1 if the file was accessed over 1 hour ago:
502
</SELECT>
<RELOCATE>
<FROM>
<SOURCE>
</SOURCE>
</FROM>
<TO Flags="uncompress">
<DESTINATION>
</DESTINATION>
</TO>
<WHEN>
<ACCAGE Units="hours">
</ACCAGE>
</WHEN>
</RELOCATE>
DELETE statement
The DELETE file placement policy rule statement is very similar to the RELOCATE
statement in both form and function, lacking only the <TO> clause. File placement
policy-based deletion may be thought of as relocation with a fixed destination.
Note: Use DELETE statements with caution.
The following XML snippet illustrates the general form of the DELETE statement:
<DELETE>
<FROM>
<SOURCE>
</SOURCE>
<SOURCE>
additional_placement_class_specifications
</SOURCE>
</FROM>
503
<WHEN> relocation_conditions </WHEN>

</DELETE>
A DELETE statement contains the following clauses:

<FROM>
An optional clause that contains a list of placement classes from whose

volumes designated files should be deleted if the files meet the
conditions specified in the <WHEN> clause. No priority is associated
with the ordering of placement classes in a <FROM> clause. If a file to
which the rule applies is located on a volume in any specified placement
class, the file is deleted. If a DELETE statement does not contain a
<FROM> clause, VxFS deletes qualifying files no matter on which of a
file system's volumes the files reside.
<WHEN>
An optional clause specifying the conditions under which files to which

the rule applies should be deleted. The form of the <WHEN> clause in
a DELETE statement is identical to that of the <WHEN> clause in a
RELOCATE statement. If a DELETE statement does not contain a <WHEN>
clause, files designated by the rule's SELECT statement, and the
<FROM> clause if it is present, are deleted unconditionally.
DELETE statement examples

The following example illustrates the use of the DELETE statement:
<DELETE>
<FROM>
<SOURCE>
</SOURCE>
</FROM>
</DELETE>
<DELETE>
<FROM>
<SOURCE>
</SOURCE>
</FROM>
<WHEN>
</ACCAGE>
</WHEN>
</DELETE>
504
The first DELETE statement unconditionally deletes files designated by the rule's
SELECT statement that reside on tier3 volumes when the fsppadm enforce
command is issued. The absence of a <WHEN> clause in the DELETE statement
indicates that deletion of designated files is unconditional.
The second DELETE statement deletes files to which the rule applies that reside on
tier2 volumes when the fsppadm enforce command is issued and that have not
been accessed for the past 120 days.
COMPRESS statement
The COMPRESS statement in a file placement policy rule specifies in-place file
compression on multi-volume or single-volume file systems. The placement policy
becomes assigned to the selected file, and allocation for the compressed extents
is done from the same tier specified in the <SOURCE> element of the <FROM> clause.
SmartTier performs in-place compression of the entire file, even if the file spans
across multiple tiers.
Note: SmartTier does not schedule compression activity. If you did not integrate
your Symantec Storage Foundation product with the Veritas Operations Manager
(VOM), then you must automate compression activity by using techniques such as
scheduling through cron jobs.
The following XML snippet illustrates the general form of the COMPRESS statement:
<COMPRESS>
<FROM>
<SOURCE>
</SOURCE>
</SOURCE>
</FROM>
<WHEN> compression_conditions </WHEN>
</COMPRESS>
A COMPRESS statement contains the following clauses:
505
<FROM>

volumes designated files should be compressed if the files meet the
with the ordering of placement classes listed in a <FROM> clause. If a
file to which the rule applies is located on a volume in any specified
placement class, the file is considered for compression.
If a COMPRESS statement contains a <FROM> clause, VxFS only
considers files that reside on volumes in placement classes specified
in the clause for compression. If no <FROM> clause is present, qualifying
files are compressed regardless of where the files reside.
<WHEN>
An optional clause that indicates the conditions under which files to

which the rule applies should be compressed. Files that have been
unaccessed or unmodified for a specified period, reached a certain
size, or reached a specific I/O temperature or access temperature level
may be compressed. If a COMPRESS statement does not contain a
<WHEN> clause, files to which the rule applies are compressed
unconditionally.
A <WHEN> clause may be included in a COMPRESS statement to specify
that files should be compressed only if any or all of four types of criteria
are met. Files can be specified for compression if they satisfy one or
more criteria.
<ACCAGE>
<MODAGE>

<SIZE>

<IOTEMP>

on page 524.
506
<ACCESSTEMP>

transferred.
cache skew.
COMPRESS statement:
<WHEN>
</ACCAGE>
</MODAGE>
min_size</MIN>
max_size</MAX>
</SIZE>
507
508

</IOTEMP>
</ACCESSTEMP>
</WHEN>
access age thresholds for compression, respectively. These elements are optional,
hours
Hours
days

gt
eq
gteq
interval.

lt
lteq
interval.
Including a <MIN> element in a <WHEN> clause causes VxFS to compress files to

which the rule applies that have been inactive for longer than the specified interval.
Such a rule would typically be used to compress inactive files to less expensive
storage tiers. Conversely, including <MAX> causes files accessed within the specified
interval to be compressed. It would typically be used to move inactive files against
which activity had recommenced to higher performance or more reliable storage.
Including both <MIN> and <MAX> causes VxFS to compress files whose access age
lies between the two.
The modification age compression criterion, <MODAGE>, is similar to access age,
except that files' POSIX mtime values are used in computations. You would typically
specify the <MODAGE> criterion to cause compression of recently modified files to
higher performance or more reliable storage tiers in anticipation that the files would
be accessed recurrently in the near future.
The file size compression criterion, <SIZE>, causes files to be compressed if the
files are larger or smaller than the values specified in the <MIN> and <MAX>
compression criteria, respectively, at the time that the fsppadm enforce command
was issued. Specifying both criteria causes VxFS to schedule compression for files
whose sizes lie between the two. Using the Units attribute, threshold file sizes may
be specified in the following units:
bytes
Bytes
KB
Kilobytes
MB
Megabytes
GB
Gigabytes
Specifying the I/O temperature compression criterion

The I/O temperature compression criterion, <IOTEMP>, causes files to be compressed
if their I/O temperatures rise above or drop below specified values over a specified
period immediately prior to the time at which the fsppadm enforce command was
issued. A file's I/O temperature is a measure of the read, write, or total I/O activity
against it normalized to the file's size. Higher I/O temperatures indicate higher levels
of application activity; lower temperatures indicate lower levels. VxFS computes a
file's I/O temperature by dividing the number of bytes transferred to or from it (read,
written, or both) during the specified period by its size at the time that the fsppadm
enforce command was issued.
509

As with the other file compression criteria, <IOTEMP> may be specified with a lower
threshold by using the <MIN> element, an upper threshold by using the <MAX>
510
the more appropriate compression criterion. However, if the intention is to compress

files as the I/O load on them decreases, then I/O temperature is more appropriate.
The case for upward compression is similar. If files that have been compressed to
lower-tier storage devices due to infrequent access experience renewed application
activity, then it may be appropriate to compress those files to top-tier devices. A
policy rule that uses access age with a low <MAX> value, that is, the interval between
fsppadm enforce runs, as a compression criterion will cause files to be compressed
that have been accessed even once during the interval. Conversely, a policy that
uses I/O temperature with a <MIN> value will only compress files that have
experienced a sustained level of activity over the period of interest.
Prefer attribute
criteria, which gives preference to compressing files. The Prefer attribute can take
two values: low or high. If you specify low, Veritas File System (VxFS) compresss
the files with the lower I/O temperature before compressing the files with the higher
I/O temperature. If you specify high, VxFS compresss the files with the higher I/O
temperature before compressing the files with the lower I/O temperature. Symantec
recommends that you specify a Prefer attribute value only if you are using solid
state disks (SSDs).
criteria of different COMPRESS statements within the same policy.
<COMPRESS>
...
<WHEN>
</IOTEMP>
</WHEN>
</COMPRESS>
minimum value, the files with the higher temperature are first subject to the COMPRESS
operation before the files with the lower temperature.
511
512

The <PERIOD> element in the COMPRESS criteria specifies the a number of hours or
days immediately before the time of the scan. During that time, the I/O statistics
(SSDs).
<COMPRESS>
...
<WHEN>
</IOTEMP>
</WHEN>
</COMPRESS>
In the snippet, VxFS compresss any file whose read IOTEMP over the last 6 hours
is 1.5 times that of all the active files in the whole file system over the last 24 hours.
This Average criteria is more intuitive and easier to specify than the absolute values.

against 1.5 times that of the last 24 hours average activity to make the compression
decision. Using this method eliminates the need to give a specific number for the
<IOTEMP> or <ACCESSTEMP> criteria, and instead lets you specify a multiple of the
Average temperature. Keeping this averaging period longer than the specified
<PERIOD> value normalizes the effects of any spikes and lulls in the file activity.
read Average IOTEMP
rw Average IOTEMP
COMPRESS statement examples

The following example compresses all of the files with the extension dbf on the
multi-volume file system tier2 that have not been accessed for last 30 days:
</SELECT>
513
<COMPRESS>
<FROM>
<SOURCE>
</SOURCE>
</FROM>
<WHEN>
</ACCAGE>
</WHEN>
</COMPRESS>
The files designated by the rule's SELECT statement that reside on volumes in
placement class tier2 at the time the fsppadm enforce command executes are
compressed in place. Each instantiation of fsppadm enforce compresses files
created since the last run on the tier2 volumes.
The following example compresses all of the files with the extension dbf on a single
volume if the file was not accessed for one minute.
</SELECT>
<COMPRESS>
<WHEN>
<ACCAGE Units="minutes">
</ACCAGE>
</WHEN>
</COMPRESS>
No <FROM> clause is required for single volume. The files designated by the rule's
SELECT statement at the time the fsppadm enforce command executes are
compressed in place. Each instantiation of fsppadm enforce compresses files
created since the last run on the volume.
The following example compresses all of the files on tier3:
<PATTERN> * </PATTERN>
</SELECT>
514
<COMPRESS>
<FROM>
<SOURCE>
</SOURCE>
</FROM>
</COMPRESS>
This rule compresses in place all files that reside on tier3 at the time the fsppadm
enforce command executes.
UNCOMPRESS statement
The UNCOMPRESS statement in a file placement policy rule specifies in-place file
uncompression on multi-volume and single-volume file systems. The placement
policy becomes assigned to the selected file, and allocation for the uncompressed
extents is done from the tier specified in the <SOURCE> element of the <FROM> clause.
If a file is partially compressed, then the file can be picked only for in-place
compression. After being compressed, the file will be uncompressed before being
relocated in the next policy enforcement.
Note: SmartTier does not schedule uncompression activity. If you did not integrate
your Symantec Storage Foundation product with the Veritas Operations Manager
(VOM), then you must automate uncompression activity by using techniques such
as scheduling through cron jobs.
The following XML snippet illustrates the general form of the UNCOMPRESS statement:
<UNCOMPRESS>
<FROM>
<SOURCE>
</SOURCE>
</SOURCE>
</FROM>
<WHEN> uncompression_conditions </WHEN>
</UNCOMPRESS>
A UNCOMPRESS statement contains the following clauses:
515
<FROM>

volumes designated files should be uncompressed if the files meet the
with the ordering of placement classes listed in a <FROM> clause. If a
file to which the rule applies is located on a volume in any specified
placement class, the file is considered for uncompression.
If a UNCOMPRESS statement contains a <FROM> clause, VxFS only
considers files that reside on volumes in placement classes specified
in the clause for uncompression. If no <FROM> clause is present,
qualifying files are uncompressed regardless of where the files reside.
<WHEN>
An optional clause that indicates the conditions under which files to

which the rule applies should be uncompressed. Files that have been
unaccessed or unmodified for a specified period, reached a certain
size, or reached a specific I/O temperature or access temperature level
may be uncompressed. If a UNCOMPRESS statement does not contain
a <WHEN> clause, files to which the rule applies are uncompressed
unconditionally.
A <WHEN> clause may be included in a UNCOMPRESS statement to
specify that files should be uncompressed only if any or all of four types
of criteria are met. Files can be specified for uncompression if they
satisfy one or more criteria.
<ACCAGE>
<MODAGE>

<SIZE>

<IOTEMP>

on page 524.
516
<ACCESSTEMP>

transferred.
cache skew.
UNCOMPRESS statement:
<WHEN>
</ACCAGE>
</MODAGE>
min_size</MIN>
max_size</MAX>
</SIZE>
517
518

</IOTEMP>
</ACCESSTEMP>
</WHEN>
access age thresholds for uncompression, respectively. These elements are optional,
hours
Hours
days

gt
eq
gteq
interval.

lt
lteq
interval.
Including a <MIN> element in a <WHEN> clause causes VxFS to uncompress files to

which the rule applies that have been inactive for longer than the specified interval.
Such a rule would typically be used to uncompress inactive files to less expensive
storage tiers. Conversely, including <MAX> causes files accessed within the specified
interval to be uncompressed. It would typically be used to move inactive files against
which activity had recommenced to higher performance or more reliable storage.
Including both <MIN> and <MAX> causes VxFS to uncompress files whose access
age lies between the two.
The modification age uncompression criterion, <MODAGE>, is similar to access age,
except that files' POSIX mtime values are used in computations. You would typically
specify the <MODAGE> criterion to cause uncompression of recently modified files to
higher performance or more reliable storage tiers in anticipation that the files would
be accessed recurrently in the near future.
The file size uncompression criterion, <SIZE>, causes files to be uncompressed if
the files are larger or smaller than the values specified in the <MIN> and <MAX>
uncompression criteria, respectively, at the time that the fsppadm enforce command
was issued. Specifying both criteria causes VxFS to schedule uncompression for
files whose sizes lie between the two. Using the Units attribute, threshold file sizes
may be specified in the following units:
bytes
Bytes
KB
Kilobytes
MB
Megabytes
GB
Gigabytes
Specifying the I/O temperature uncompression criterion

The I/O temperature uncompression criterion, <IOTEMP>, causes files to be
uncompressed if their I/O temperatures rise above or drop below specified values
over a specified period immediately prior to the time at which the fsppadm enforce
command was issued. A file's I/O temperature is a measure of the read, write, or
total I/O activity against it normalized to the file's size. Higher I/O temperatures
indicate higher levels of application activity; lower temperatures indicate lower
levels. VxFS computes a file's I/O temperature by dividing the number of bytes
transferred to or from it (read, written, or both) during the specified period by its
size at the time that the fsppadm enforce command was issued.
519

As with the other file uncompression criteria, <IOTEMP> may be specified with a
lower threshold by using the <MIN> element, an upper threshold by using the <MAX>
520
the more appropriate uncompression criterion. However, if the intention is to

uncompress files as the I/O load on them decreases, then I/O temperature is more
appropriate.
The case for upward uncompression is similar. If files that have been uncompressed
to lower-tier storage devices due to infrequent access experience renewed
application activity, then it may be appropriate to uncompress those files to top-tier
devices. A policy rule that uses access age with a low <MAX> value, that is, the
interval between fsppadm enforce runs, as a uncompression criterion will cause
files to be uncompressed that have been accessed even once during the interval.
Conversely, a policy that uses I/O temperature with a <MIN> value will only
uncompress files that have experienced a sustained level of activity over the period
of interest.
Prefer attribute
criteria, which gives preference to uncompressing files. The Prefer attribute can
take two values: low or high. If you specify low, Veritas File System (VxFS)
uncompresss the files with the lower I/O temperature before uncompressing the
files with the higher I/O temperature. If you specify high, VxFS uncompresss the
files with the higher I/O temperature before uncompressing the files with the lower
I/O temperature. Symantec recommends that you specify a Prefer attribute value
only if you are using solid state disks (SSDs).
criteria of different UNCOMPRESS statements within the same policy.
<UNCOMPRESS>
...
<WHEN>
</IOTEMP>
</WHEN>
</UNCOMPRESS>
minimum value, the files with the higher temperature are first subject to the
UNCOMPRESS operation before the files with the lower temperature.
521
522

The <PERIOD> element in the UNCOMPRESS criteria specifies the a number of hours
or days immediately before the time of the scan. During that time, the I/O statistics
(SSDs).
<UNCOMPRESS>
...
<WHEN>
</IOTEMP>
</WHEN>
</UNCOMPRESS>
In the snippet, VxFS uncompresss any file whose read IOTEMP over the last 6
hours is 1.5 times that of all the active files in the whole file system over the last 24
hours. This Average criteria is more intuitive and easier to specify than the absolute
values.

against 1.5 times that of the last 24 hours average activity to make the
uncompression decision. Using this method eliminates the need to give a specific
number for the <IOTEMP> or <ACCESSTEMP> criteria, and instead lets you specify a
multiple of the Average temperature. Keeping this averaging period longer than the
specified <PERIOD> value normalizes the effects of any spikes and lulls in the file
activity.
read Average IOTEMP
rw Average IOTEMP
UNCOMPRESS statement examples

The following example uncompresses in place all of the files with the extension dbf
on the multi-volume file system tier3 that have been accessed over 60 minutes
ago:
523
</SELECT>
<UNCOMPRESS>
<FROM>
<SOURCE>
</SOURCE>
</FROM>
<WHEN>
</ACCAGE>
</WHEN>
</UNCOMPRESS>
The following example uncompresses in place all of the files with the extension dbf
on a single volume that have been accessed over 1 minute ago:
</SELECT>
<UNCOMPRESS>
<WHEN>
</ACCAGE>
</WHEN>
</UNCOMPRESS>

An important application of VxFS SmartTier is automating the relocation of inactive
files to lower cost storage. If a file has not been accessed for the period of time
specified in the <ACCAGE> element, a scan of the file system should schedule the
file for relocation to a lower tier of storage. But, time since last access is inadequate
as the only criterion for activity-based relocation.
Why time since last access is inadequate as the only criterion for activity-based
relocation:
524
Access age is a binary measure. The time since last access of a file is computed
by subtracting the time at which the fsppadm enforce command is issued from
the POSIX atime in the file's metadata. If a file is opened the day before the
fsppadm enforce command, its time since last access is one day, even though
it may have been inactive for the month preceding. If the intent of a policy rule
is to relocate inactive files to lower tier volumes, it will perform badly against
files that happen to be accessed, however casually, within the interval defined
by the value of the <ACCAGE> pa-rameter.
Access age is a poor indicator of resumption of significant activity. Using ACCAGE,

the time since last access, as a criterion for relocating inactive files to lower tier
volumes may fail to schedule some relocations that should be performed, but
at least this method results in less relocation activity than necessary. Using
ACCAGE as a criterion for relocating previously inactive files that have become
active is worse, because this method is likely to schedule relocation activity that
is not warranted. If a policy rule's intent is to cause files that have experienced
I/O activity in the recent past to be relocated to higher performing, perhaps more
failure tolerant storage, ACCAGE is too coarse a filter. For example, in a rule
specifying that files on tier2 volumes that have been accessed within the last
three days should be relocated to tier1 volumes, no distinction is made between
a file that was browsed by a single user and a file that actually was used
intensively by applications.
SmartTier implements the concept of I/O temperature and access temperature to

overcome these deficiencies. A file's I/O temperature is equal to the number of
bytes transferred to or from it over a specified period of time divided by the size of
the file. For example, if a file occupies one megabyte of storage at the time of an
fsppadm enforce operation and the data in the file has been completely read or
written 15 times within the last three days, VxFS calculates its 3-day average I/O
temperature to be 5 (15 MB of I/O 1 MB file size 3 days).
Similarly, a file's average access temperature is the number of read or write requests
made to it over a specified number of 24-hour periods divided by the number of
periods. Unlike I/O temperature, access temperature is unrelated to file size. A large
file to which 20 I/O requests are made over a 2-day period has the same average
access temperature as a small file accessed 20 times over a 2-day period.
If a file system's active placement policy includes any <IOTEMP> or <ACCESSTEMP>
clauses, VxFS begins policy enforcement by using information in the file system's
FCL file to calculate average I/O activity against all files in the file system during
the longest <PERIOD> specified in the policy. Shorter specified periods are ignored.
VxFS uses these calculations to qualify files for I/O temperature-based relocation
and deletion.
525
Note: If FCL is turned off, I/O temperature-based relocation will not be accurate.
When you invoke the fsppadm enforce command, the command displays a warning
if the FCL is turned off.
As its name implies, the File Change Log records information about changes made
to files in a VxFS file system. In addition to recording creations, deletions, extensions,
the FCL periodically captures the cumulative amount of I/O activity (number of bytes
read and written) on a file-by-file basis. File I/O activity is recorded in the FCL each
time a file is opened or closed, as well as at timed intervals to capture information
about files that remain open for long periods.
If a file system's active file placement policy contains <IOTEMP> clauses, execution
of the fsppadm enforce command begins with a scan of the FCL to extract I/O
activity information over the period of interest for the policy. The period of interest
is the interval between the time at which the fsppadm enforce command was
issued and that time minus the largest interval value specified in any <PERIOD>
element in the active policy.
For files with I/O activity during the largest interval, VxFS computes an approximation
of the amount of read, write, and total data transfer (the sum of the two) activity by
subtracting the I/O levels in the oldest FCL record that pertains to the file from those
in the newest. It then computes each file's I/O temperature by dividing its I/O activity
by its size at Tscan. Dividing by file size is an implicit acknowledgement that
relocating larger files consumes more I/O resources than relocating smaller ones.
Using this algorithm requires that larger files must have more activity against them
in order to reach a given I/O temperature, and thereby justify the resource cost of
relocation.
While this computation is an approximation in several ways, it represents an easy
to compute, and more importantly, unbiased estimate of relative recent I/O activity
upon which reasonable relocation decisions can be based.
File relocation and deletion decisions can be based on read, write, or total I/O
activity.
The following XML snippet illustrates the use of IOTEMP in a policy rule to specify
relocation of low activity files from tier1 volumes to tier2 volumes:
<RELOCATE>
<FROM>
<SOURCE>
</SOURCE>
</FROM>
<TO>
526
<DESTINATION>
</DESTINATION>
</TO>
<WHEN>
<IOTEMP Type="nrwbytes}">
<PERIOD Units="days">4</PERIOD>
</IOTEMP>
</WHEN>
</RELOCATE>
This snippet specifies that files to which the rule applies should be relocated from
tier1 volumes to tier2 volumes if their I/O temperatures fall below 3 over a period
of 4 days. The Type="nrwbytes}" XML attribute specifies that total data transfer
activity, which is the the sum of bytes read and bytes written, should be used in the
computation. For example, a 50 megabyte file that experienced less than 150
megabytes of data transfer over the 4-day period immediately preceding the fsppadm
enforce scan would be a candidate for relocation. VxFS considers files that
experience no activity over the period of interest to have an I/O temperature of zero.
VxFS relocates qualifying files in the order in which it encounters the files in its scan
of the file system directory tree.
Using I/O temperature or access temperature rather than a binary indication of
activity, such as the POSIX atime or mtime, minimizes the chance of not relocating
files that were only accessed occasionally during the period of interest. A large file
that has had only a few bytes transferred to or from it would have a low I/O
temperature, and would therefore be a candidate for relocation to tier2 volumes,
even if the activity was very recent.
But, the greater value of I/O temperature or access temperature as a file relocation
criterion lies in upward relocation: detecting increasing levels of I/O activity against
files that had previously been relocated to lower tiers in a storage hierarchy due to
inactivity or low temperatures, and relocating them to higher tiers in the storage
hierarchy.
The following XML snippet illustrates relocating files from tier2 volumes to tier1
when the activity level against them increases.
<RELOCATE>
<FROM>
<SOURCE>
</SOURCE>
</FROM>
527
<TO>
<DESTINATION>
</DESTINATION>
</TO>
<WHEN>
<MAX Flags="gt">5</MAX>
<PERIOD Units="days">2</PERIOD>
</IOTEMP>
</WHEN>
</RELOCATE>
The <RELOCATE> statement specifies that files on tier2 volumes whose I/O
temperature as calculated using the number of bytes read is above 5 over a 2-day
period are to be relocated to tier1 volumes. Bytes written to the file during the
period of interest are not part of this calculation.
Using I/O temperature rather than a binary indicator of activity as a criterion for file
relocation gives administrators a granular level of control over automated file
relocation that can be used to attune policies to application requirements. For
example, specifying a large value in the <PERIOD> element of an upward relocation
statement prevents files from being relocated unless I/O activity against them is
sustained. Alternatively, specifying a high temperature and a short period tends to
relocate files based on short-term intensity of I/O activity against them.
I/O temperature and access temperature utilize the sqlite3 database for building
a temporary table indexed on an inode. This temporary table is used to filter files
based on I/O temperature and access temperature. The temporary table is stored
in the database file .__fsppadm_fcliotemp.db, which resides in the lost+found
directory of the mount point.
Multiple criteria in file placement policy rule

statements
In certain cases, file placement policy rule statements may contain multiple clauses
that affect their behavior. In general, when a rule statement contains multiple clauses
of a given type, all clauses must be satisfied in order for the statement to be effective.
There are four cases of note in which multiple clauses may be used.
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Multiple file selection criteria in SELECT statement clauses

Within a single SELECT statement, all the selection criteria clauses of a single type
are treated as a selection list. A file need only satisfy a single criterion of a given
type to be designated.
In the following example, files in any of the db/datafiles, db/indexes, and db/logs
directories, all relative to the file system mount point, would be selected:
<SELECT>
<DIRECTORY Flags="nonrecursive">db/datafiles</DIRECTORY>
<DIRECTORY Flags="nonrecursive">db/indexes</DIRECTORY>
<DIRECTORY Flags="nonrecursive">db/logs</DIRECTORY>
</SELECT>
This example is in direct contrast to the treatment of selection criteria clauses of

different types. When a SELECT statement includes multiple types of file selection
criteria, a file must satisfy one criterion of each type in order for the rule's action
statements to apply.
In the following example, a file must reside in one of db/datafiles, db/indexes,
or db/logs and be owned by one of DBA_Manager, MFG_DBA, or HR_DBA to be
designated for possible action:
<SELECT>
<USER>DBA_Manager</USER>
<USER>MFG_DBA</USER>
<USER>HR_DBA</USER>
</SELECT>
If a rule includes multiple SELECT statements, a file need only satisfy one of them
to be selected for action. This property can be used to specify alternative conditions
for file selection.
In the following example, a file need only reside in one of db/datafiles,
db/indexes, or db/logs or be owned by one of DBA_Manager, MFG_DBA, or HR_DBA
to be designated for possible action:
<SELECT>
</SELECT>
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<SELECT>
<USER>DBA_Manager</USER>
<USER>MFG_DBA</USER>
<USER>HR_DBA</USER>
</SELECT>
Multiple placement classes in <ON> clauses of CREATE statements

and in <TO> clauses of RELOCATE statements
Both the <ON> clause of the CREATE statement and the <TO> clause of the RELOCATE
statement can specify priority ordered lists of placement classes using multiple
<DESTINATION> XML elements. VxFS uses a volume in the first placement class
in a list for the designated purpose of file creation or relocation, if possible. If no
volume in the first listed class has sufficient free space or if the file system's volume
set does not contain any volumes with that placement class, VxFS uses a volume
in the second listed class if possible. If no volume in the second listed class can be
used, a volume in the third listed class is used if possible, and so forth.
The following example illustrates of three placement classes specified in the <ON>
clause of a CREATE statement:
<CREATE>
<ON>
<DESTINATION>
</DESTINATION>
<DESTINATION>
</DESTINATION>
<DESTINATION>
</DESTINATION>
</ON>
</CREATE>
In this statement, VxFS would allocate space for newly created files designated by
the rule's SELECT statement on tier1 volumes if space was available. If no tier1
volume had sufficient free space, VxFS would attempt to allocate space on a tier2
volume. If no tier2 volume had sufficient free space, VxFS would attempt allocation
on a tier3 volume. If sufficient space could not be allocated on a volume in any
of the three specified placement classes, allocation would fail with an ENOSPC error,
even if the file system's volume set included volumes in other placement classes
that did have sufficient space.
530
The <TO> clause in the RELOCATE statement behaves similarly. VxFS relocates
qualifying files to volumes in the first placement class specified if possible, to volumes
in the second specified class if not, and so forth. If none of the destination criteria
can be met, such as if all specified classes are fully occupied, qualifying files are
not relocated, but no error is signaled in this case.
Multiple placement classes in <FROM> clauses of RELOCATE and

DELETE statements
The <FROM> clause in RELOCATE and DELETE statements can include multiple source
placement classes. However, unlike the <ON> and <TO> clauses, no order or priority
is implied in <FROM> clauses. If a qualifying file resides on a volume in any of the
placement classes specified in a <FROM> clause, it is relocated or deleted regardless
of the position of its placement class in the <FROM> clause list of classes.
Multiple conditions in <WHEN> clauses of RELOCATE and DELETE

statements
The <WHEN> clause in RELOCATE and DELETE statements may include multiple
relocation criteria. Any or all of <ACCAGE>, <MODAGE>, <SIZE>, and <IOTEMP> can
be specified. When multiple conditions are specified, all must be satisfied in order
for a selected file to qualify for relocation or deletion.
In the following example, a selected file would have to be both inactive, that is, not
accessed, for more than 30 days and larger than 100 megabytes to be eligible for
relocation or deletion:
<WHEN>
</ACCAGE>
<SIZE Units="MB">
</SIZE>
</WHEN>
You cannot write rules to relocate or delete a single designated set of files if the
files meet one of two or more relocation or deletion criteria.

You can use the SmartTier graphical user interface (GUI) to create any of four types
of file placement policy documents. Alternatively, you can use a text editor or XML
531
editor to create XML policy documents directly. The GUI places policy rule
statements in the correct order to achieve the desired behavior. If you use a text
editor, it is your responsibility to order policy rules and the statements in them so
that the desired behavior results.
The rules that comprise a placement policy may occur in any order, but during both
file allocation and fsppadm enforce relocation scans, the first rule in which a file
is designated by a SELECT statement is the only rule against which that file is
evaluated. Thus, rules whose purpose is to supersede a generally applicable
behavior for a special class of files should precede the general rules in a file
placement policy document.
The following XML snippet illustrates faulty rule placement with potentially unintended
consequences:
<?xml version="1.0"?>
<!DOCTYPE FILE_PLACEMENT_POLICY SYSTEM "placement.dtd">
<FILE_PLACEMENT_POLICY Version="5.0">
<RULE Name="GeneralRule">
<SELECT>
<PATTERN>*</PATTERN>
</SELECT>
<CREATE>
<ON>
<DESTINATION>
</DESTINATION>
</ON>
</CREATE>
other_statements
</RULE>
<RULE Name="DatabaseRule">
<SELECT>
<PATTERN>*.db</PATTERN>
</SELECT>
<CREATE>
<ON>
<DESTINATION>
</DESTINATION>
</ON>
</CREATE>
other_statements
532
</RULE>
</FILE_PLACEMENT_POLICY>
The GeneralRule rule specifies that all files created in the file system, designated
by <PATTERN>*</PATTERN>, should be created on tier2 volumes. The DatabaseRule
rule specifies that files whose names include an extension of .db should be created
on tier1 volumes. The GeneralRule rule applies to any file created in the file
system, including those with a naming pattern of *.db, so the DatabaseRule rule
will never apply to any file. This fault can be remedied by exchanging the order of
the two rules. If the DatabaseRule rule occurs first in the policy document, VxFS
encounters it first when determining where to new place files whose names follow
the pattern *.db, and correctly allocates space for them on tier1 volumes. For
files to which the DatabaseRule rule does not apply, VxFS continues scanning the
policy and allocates space according to the specification in the CREATE statement
of the GeneralRule rule.
A similar consideration applies to statements within a placement policy rule. VxFS
processes these statements in order, and stops processing on behalf of a file when
it encounters a statement that pertains to the file. This can result in unintended
behavior.
The following XML snippet illustrates a RELOCATE statement and a DELETE statement
in a rule that is intended to relocate if the files have not been accessed in 30 days,
and delete the files if they have not been accessed in 90 days:
<RELOCATE>
<TO>
<DESTINATION>
</DESTINATION>
</TO>
<WHEN>
</ACCAGE>
</WHEN>
</RELOCATE>
<DELETE>
<WHEN>
</ACCAGE>
</WHEN>
</DELETE>
533
As written with the RELOCATE statement preceding the DELETE statement, files will
never be deleted, because the <WHEN> clause in the RELOCATE statement applies
to all selected files that have not been accessed for at least 30 days. This includes
those that have not been accessed for 90 days. VxFS ceases to process a file
against a placement policy when it identifies a statement that applies to that file,
so the DELETE statement would never occur. This example illustrates the general
point that RELOCATE and DELETE statements that specify less inclusive criteria should
precede statements that specify more inclusive criteria in a file placement policy
document. The GUI automatically produce the correct statement order for the
policies it creates.

In a VxFS file system with an active file placement policy, the placement class on
whose volume a file resides is part of its metadata, and is attached when it is created
and updated when it is relocated. When an application extends a file, VxFS allocates
the incremental space on the volume occupied by the file if possible. If not possible,
VxFS allocates the space on another volume in the same placement class. For
example, if a file is created on a tier1 volume and later relocated to a tier2 volume,
extensions to the file that occur before the relocation have space allocated on a
tier1 volume, while those occurring after to the relocation have their space allocated
on tier2 volumes. When a file is relocated, all of its allocated space, including the
space acquired by extension, is relocated to tier2 volumes in this case.

The SmartTier placement policies support SSD-based tiers with the following
features:
Allowance of fine grained temperatures, such as allowing hours as units for the
<IOTEMP> and <ACCESSTEMP> criteria
See Fine grain temperatures with solid state disks on page 535.
Support of the Prefer attribute for the <IOTEMP> and <ACCESSTEMP> criteria
Provision of a mechanism to relocate based on average I/O activity

Reduction of the intensity and duration of scans to minimize the impact on

resources, such as memory, CPU, and I/O bandwidth
Quick identification of cold files
534
See Quick identification of cold files with solid state disks on page 537.
To gain these benefits, you must modify the existing placement policy as per the
latest version of the DTD and assign the policy again. However, existing placement
policies continue to function as before. You do not need to update the placement
policies if you do not use the new features.
Fine grain temperatures with solid state disks

Before the solid state disk (SSD) enhancements, the SmartTier feature computed
temperature values on a day granularity. Day granularity is the I/O activity per day
over at least one day. As such, the <PERIOD> element had to be in days for the
<IOTEMP> and <ACCESSTEMP> criteria. With SSDs, relocation decisions might need
to happen within the day itself, based on I/O activity that Veritas File System (VxFS)
measured over a shorter duration. As such, you can now specify "hours" for the
Units attribute value for the <IOTEMP> and <ACCESSTEMP> criteria.
See Specifying the I/O temperature relocation criterion on page 494.
The following placement policy snippet gives an example of specifying 4 hours as
the period of time:
<RELOCATE>
...
<WHEN>
<IOTEMP Type="nwbytes">
<MIN Flags="gteq"> 2 </MIN>
</IOTEMP>
</WHEN>
</RELOCATE>
Prefer mechanism with solid state disks

You can now specify a value for the Prefer attribute for the <IOTEMP> and
<ACCESSTEMP> criteria, which gives preference to relocating files.
See Prefer attribute on page 495.
In case of a solid state disk (SSD)-based tier, you might want to relocate a file to
an SSD as soon as there is a marked increase in the I/O activity. However, once
Veritas File System (VxFS) has relocated the file to an SSD, it may be beneficial
to keep the file on the SSD as long as the activity remains high to avoid frequent
thrashing. You want to watch the activity for some time longer than the time that
you watched the activity when you relocated the file to the SSD before you decide
to move the file off of the SSD.
535
<RELOCATE>
...
<WHEN>
</IOTEMP>
</WHEN>
</RELOCATE>
minimum value, the files with the higher temperature are first subject to the RELOCATE
operation before the files with the lower temperature. This is particularly useful in
case of SSDs, which are limited in size and are expensive. As such, you generally
want to use SSDs for the most active files.
Average I/O activity with solid state disks

Before the solid state disk (SSD) enhancements, you were required to specify an
absolute value of the temperature when you used the ACCESSTEMP criteria and
IOTEMP criteria in the SmartTier placement policies. However, arriving at such
absolute numbers is difficult and requires you to experiment and observe data
access patterns over a period of time. Moreover, over a period of time, you might
have to change this value due to changing access patterns. As such, you might
need to repeat the experiment. To ease constructing ACCESSTEMP and IOTEMP-based
policies, a new criteria has been introduced: Average.
See Average I/O activity criteria on page 496.
Frequent SmartTier scans with solid state disks

You can specify "hours" for the Units attribute value, and as such the I/O stats
collection PERIOD can be much shorter than in previous releases. When not using
solid state disks (SSDs), you can only specify "days" for the Units attribute value,
which might be sufficient for your needs. However, a PERIOD shorter than a day
is required in the context of using SSDs since the candidate files and their activity
levels can change during the day. As a result, SmartTier must scan more frequently,
which leads to a higher scan load on the host systems.
You must satisfy the following conflicting requirements simultaneously:
Bring down the temperature collection windows to hourly levels.
536
Reduce the impact of more frequent scans on resources, such as CPU, I/O,
and memory.
The following scheme is an example of one way to reduce the impact of frequent
scans:
Confine the scan to only active files during the PERIOD by focusing only on the
files that showed any activity in the File Change Log (FCL) by running the
fsppadm command with the -C option.
See Quick identification of cold files with solid state disks on page 537.
Scan frequently, such as every few hours. Frequent scans potentially reduce
the number of inodes that VxFS touches and logs in the File Change Log (FCL)
file, thereby limiting the duration of each scan. As such, the changes that VxFS
collects in the FCL file since the last scan provide details on fewer active files.
Use the <IOTEMP> and <ACCESSTEMP> criteria to promote files to SSDs more
aggressively, which leaves cold files sitting in SSDs.
Quick identification of cold files with solid state disks

The placement mechanism generally leaves the cold files in solid state disks (SSDs)
if the files continue to remain inactive. This results in a lack of room for active files
if the active files need to be moved into SSDs, and thus results in ineffective use
of storage. An SSD enhancement for identifying cold files quickly solves this problem.
The enhancement is a method for quickly identifying files on a particular tier of the
SmartTier file system so that the files can be relocated if necessary. The method
consists of a map that associates storage devices with the inodes of files residing
on the storage devices.
Veritas File System (VxFS) updates the file location map during the following times:
SmartTiers own file relocations
On examination of the file systems File Change Log (FCL) for changes that are
made outside of SmartTiers scope.
Both of these updates occur during SmartTiers relocation scans, which are typically
scheduled to occur periodically. But, you can also update the file location map
anytime by running the fsppadm command with the -T option.
The -C option is useful to process active files before any other files. For best results,
specify the -T option in conjunction with the -C option. Specifying both the -T option
and -C option causes the fsppadm command to evacuate any cold files first to create
room in the SSD tier to accommodate any active files that will be moved into the
SSD tier via the -C option. Specifying -C in conjunction with -T confines the scope
537
538
of the scan, which consumes less time and resources, and thus allows frequent
scans to meet the dynamic needs of data placement.
See Enforcing a placement policy on page 480.
With the help of the map, instead of scanning the full file system, you can confine
the scan to only the files on the SSD tiers in addition to the active files that VxFS
recorded in the FCL. This scheme potentially achieves the dual purpose of reducing
the temperature time granularity and at the same time reducing the scan load.
Example placement policy when using solid state disks

The following snippet is one possible placement policy for use with solid state disk
(SSD)-based tiers.
<?xml version="1.0"?>
<!DOCTYPE PLACEMENT_POLICY SYSTEM "/opt/VRTSvxfs/etc/placement_policy.dtd">
<PLACEMENT_POLICY Version="5.0" Name="SSD_policy">
<RULE Flags="data" Name="all_files">
<COMMENT>
The first two RELOCATEs will do the evacuation
out of SSDs to create room for any relocations
into the SSDs by the third RELOCATE. The parameters
that can be tuned are basically values for PERIOD and
the values of MIN and/or MAX as the per the case.
The values for MIN and MAX are treated as multiples of
average activity over past 24 hour period.
</COMMENT>
<SELECT>
<PATTERN> * </PATTERN>
</SELECT>
<CREATE>
<COMMENT>
create files on ssdtier, failing which
create them on other tiers
</COMMENT>
<ON>
<DESTINATION Flags="any">
<CLASS> ssdtier </CLASS>
</DESTINATION>
</ON>
</CREATE>
<RELOCATE>
<COMMENT>
Move the files out of SSD if their last 3 hour
write IOTEMP is more than 1.5 times the last
24 hour average write IOTEMP. The PERIOD is
purposely shorter than the other RELOCATEs
because we want to move it out as soon as
write activity starts peaking. This criteria
could be used to reduce SSD wear outs.
</COMMENT>
<FROM>
<SOURCE>
</SOURCE>
</FROM>
<TO>
<DESTINATION>
<CLASS> nonssd_tier </CLASS>
</DESTINATION>
</TO>
<WHEN>
<IOTEMP Type="nwbytes" Average="*">
<MIN Flags="gt"> 1.5 </MIN>
</IOTEMP>
</WHEN>
</RELOCATE>
<RELOCATE>
<COMMENT>
OR move the files out of SSD if their last 6 hour
read IOTEMP is less than half the last 24 hour
average read IOTEMP. The PERIOD is longer,
we may want to observe longer periods
having brought the file in. This avoids quickly
sending the file out of SSDs once in.
</COMMENT>
<FROM>
<SOURCE>
</SOURCE>
</FROM>
539
<TO>
<DESTINATION>
<CLASS> nonssd_tier </CLASS>
</DESTINATION>
</TO>
<WHEN>
<IOTEMP Type="nrbytes" Average="*">
<MAX Flags="lt"> 0.5 </MAX>
</IOTEMP>
</WHEN>
</RELOCATE>
<RELOCATE>
<COMMENT>
OR move the files into SSD if their last 3 hour
read IOTEMP is more than or equal to 1.5 times
the last 24 hour average read IOTEMP AND
their last 6 hour write IOTEMP is less than
half of the last 24 hour average write IOTEMP
</COMMENT>
<TO>
<DESTINATION>
<CLASS> ssd_tier </CLASS>
</DESTINATION>
</TO>
<WHEN>
</IOTEMP>
<IOTEMP Type="nwbytes" Average="*">
<MAX Flags="lt"> 0.5 </MAX>
</IOTEMP>
</WHEN>
</RELOCATE>
</RULE>
</PLACEMENT_POLICY>
In this placement policy, new files are created on the SSD tiers if space is available,
or elsewhere if space is not available. When enforce is performed, the files that are
currently in SSDs whose write activity is increased above a threshold or whose
540
read activity fell below a threshold over a given period are moved out of the SSDs.
The first two RELOCATEs capture this intent. However, the files whose read activity
intensified above a threshold and whose write activity does not exceed a threshold
over the given period are moved into SSDs, while giving preference to files with
higher read activity.
The following figure illustrates the behavior of the example placement policy:
The files whose I/O activity falls in the light gray area are good candidates for moving
in to SSD storage. These files have less write activity such that they have less
impact on wear leveling, and the slower write times to SSDs is less of a factor.
These files have intense read activity, which also makes the files ideal for placement
on SSDs since read activity does not cause any wear leveling side effects, and
reads are faster from SSDs. In contrast, the files whose I/O activity falls in the dark
gray area are good candidates to be moved out of SSD storage, since they have
more write activity or less read activity. Greater write activity leads to greater wear
leveling of the SSDs, and your file system's performance suffers from the slower
write times of SSDs. Lesser read activity means that you are not benefitting from
the faster read times of SSDs with these files.
541
Sub-file relocation
Sub-file relocation
The sub-file relocation functionality relocates the data ranges of the specified files
to the specified target tier. Only one instance is allowed at a time on a given node
for a given mount.
You can move sub-file data by using the fsppadm subfilemove command. The
application using this framework calls the fsppadm subfilemove command
periodically via some external scheduling mechanism at desired intervals, to effect
relocations. The application might need to call subfilemove on each node of a
cluster, in case of a cluster file system, if you want to distribute the load. The
application also must arrange for initiating this relocation for new mounts and
reboots, if the application needs subfile relocations on those nodes or mounts.
In a cluster situation, since enforcement can happen from multiple nodes even if
each node is scheduled to collect statistics at the same intervals, each nodes
persistence into the database can be slightly out of sync with each other on each
node. Since enforcement should follow statistics collection, Symantec recommends
that you schedule enforcements on each node with a few minutes of lag so that all
nodes can complete the statistics synchronizing by that time. A lag time of 5 minutes
suffices in most cases.
Note: You cannot use SmartTier to compress files while using the sub-file relocation
functionality.
Moving sub-file data of files to specific target tiers

The following example moves a total of 32 MB in the file test.dbf from the offset
64 MB through 96 MB from its existing tier to tier2:
# cat /var/tmp/list
test.dbf 67108864 100663296 tier2
# fsppadm subfilemove -f /var/tmp/list /mount1
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Chapter
27
Administering
hot-relocation
About hot-relocation
How hot-relocation works
Configuring a system for hot-relocation
Displaying spare disk information
Marking a disk as a hot-relocation spare
Removing a disk from use as a hot-relocation spare
Excluding a disk from hot-relocation use
Making a disk available for hot-relocation use
Configuring hot-relocation to use only spare disks
Moving relocated subdisks
Modifying the behavior of hot-relocation
About hot-relocation
If a volume has a disk I/O failure (for example, the disk has an uncorrectable error),
Veritas Volume Manager (VxVM) can detach the plex involved in the failure. I/O
stops on that plex but continues on the remaining plexes of the volume.
Administering hot-relocation
If a disk fails completely, VxVM can detach the disk from its disk group. All plexes
on the disk are disabled. If there are any unmirrored volumes on a disk when it is
detached, those volumes are also disabled.
Apparent disk failure may not be due to a fault in the physical disk media or the
disk controller, but may instead be caused by a fault in an intermediate or ancillary
component such as a cable, host bus adapter, or power supply.
The hot-relocation feature in VxVM automatically detects disk failures, and notifies
the system administrator and other nominated users of the failures by electronic
mail. Hot-relocation also attempts to use spare disks and free disk space to restore
redundancy and to preserve access to mirrored and RAID-5 volumes.
See How hot-relocation works on page 544.
If hot-relocation is disabled or you miss the electronic mail, you can use the vxprint
command or the graphical user interface to examine the status of the disks. You
may also see driver error messages on the console or in the system messages file.
Failed disks must be removed and replaced manually.
See Removing and replacing disks on page 667.
For more information about recovering volumes and their data after hardware failure,
see the Symantec Storage Foundation and High Availability Solutions
Troubleshooting Guide.

Hot-relocation allows a system to react automatically to I/O failures on redundant
(mirrored or RAID-5) VxVM objects, and to restore redundancy and access to those
objects. VxVM detects I/O failures on objects and relocates the affected subdisks
to disks designated as spare disks or to free space within the disk group. VxVM
then reconstructs the objects that existed before the failure and makes them
redundant and accessible again.
When a partial disk failure occurs (that is, a failure affecting only some subdisks on
a disk), redundant data on the failed portion of the disk is relocated. Existing volumes
on the unaffected portions of the disk remain accessible.
Hot-relocation is only performed for redundant (mirrored or RAID-5) subdisks on a
failed disk. Non-redundant subdisks on a failed disk are not relocated, but the
system administrator is notified of their failure.
Hot-relocation is enabled by default and takes effect without the intervention of the
system administrator when a failure occurs.
The hot-relocation daemon, vxrelocd, detects and reacts to VxVM events that
signify the following types of failures:
544
Disk failure
This is normally detected as a result of an I/O failure from a VxVM

object. VxVM attempts to correct the error. If the error cannot be
corrected, VxVM tries to access configuration information in the private
region of the disk. If it cannot access the private region, it considers the
disk failed.
Plex failure
This is normally detected as a result of an uncorrectable I/O error in

the plex (which affects subdisks within the plex). For mirrored volumes,
the plex is detached.
RAID-5 subdisk
failure
This is normally detected as a result of an uncorrectable I/O error. The

subdisk is detached.
When vxrelocd detects such a failure, it performs the following steps:
vxrelocd informs the system administrator (and other nominated users) by
electronic mail of the failure and which VxVM objects are affected.
See Partial disk failure mail messages on page 547.
See Complete disk failure mail messages on page 548.
See Modifying the behavior of hot-relocation on page 558.
vxrelocd next determines if any subdisks can be relocated. vxrelocd looks for
suitable space on disks that have been reserved as hot-relocation spares

(marked spare) in the disk group where the failure occurred. It then relocates
the subdisks to use this space.
If no spare disks are available or additional space is needed, vxrelocd uses

free space on disks in the same disk group, except those disks that have been
excluded for hot-relocation use (marked nohotuse). When vxrelocd has
relocated the subdisks, it reattaches each relocated subdisk to its plex.
Finally, vxrelocd initiates appropriate recovery procedures. For example,

recovery includes mirror resynchronization for mirrored volumes or data recovery
for RAID-5 volumes. It also notifies the system administrator of the hot-relocation
and recovery actions that have been taken.
If relocation is not possible, vxrelocd notifies the system administrator and takes
no further action.
Warning: Hot-relocation does not guarantee the same layout of data or the same
performance after relocation. An administrator should check whether any
configuration changes are required after hot-relocation occurs.
Relocation of failing subdisks is not possible in the following cases:
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The failing subdisks are on non-redundant volumes (that is, volumes of types
other than mirrored or RAID-5).
There are insufficient spare disks or free disk space in the disk group.
The only available space is on a disk that already contains a mirror of the failing
plex.
The only available space is on a disk that already contains the RAID-5 log plex
or one of its healthy subdisks. Failing subdisks in the RAID-5 plex cannot be
relocated.
If a mirrored volume has a dirty region logging (DRL) log subdisk as part of its
data plex, failing subdisks belonging to that plex cannot be relocated.
If a RAID-5 volume log plex or a mirrored volume DRL log plex fails, a new log
plex is created elsewhere. There is no need to relocate the failed subdisks of
the log plex.
See the vxrelocd(1M) manual page.

Figure 27-1 shows the hot-relocation process in the case of the failure of a single
subdisk of a RAID-5 volume.
546
Figure 27-1
Example of hot-relocation for a subdisk in a RAID-5 volume
a Disk group contains five disks. Two RAID-5 volumes are configured
across four of the disks. One spare disk is availavle for hot-relocation.
mydg01
mydg02
mydg03
mydg01-01
mydg02-01
mydg03-01
mydg02-02
mydg03-02
mydg04
mydg04-01
mydg05
Spare disk
b Subdisk mydg02-01 in one RAID-5 volume fails. Hot-relocation replaces it with

subdisk mydg05-01 that it has created on the spare disk, and then initiates
recovery on the RAID-5 volume.
mydg01
mydg02
mydg03
mydg01-01
mydg02-01
mydg03-01
mydg02-02
mydg03-02
mydg04
mydg05
mydg04-01
mydg05-01
c RAID-5 recovery recreates subdisk mydg02-01's data and parity on subdisk

mygd05-01 from the data and parity information remaining on subdisks
mydg01-01 and mydg03-01.
mydg01
mydg01-01
mydg02
mydg03
mydg02-01
mydg03-01
mydg02-02
mydg03-02
mydg04
mydg05
mydg04-01
mydg05-01
Partial disk failure mail messages

If hot-relocation is enabled when a plex or disk is detached by a failure, mail
indicating the failed objects is sent to root. If a partial disk failure occurs, the mail
identifies the failed plexes. For example, if a disk containing mirrored volumes fails,
you can receive mail information as shown in the following example:
To: root
Subject: Volume Manager failures on host teal
Failures have been detected by the Veritas Volume Manager:
failed plexes:
home-02
src-02
547
Mail can be sent to users other than root.

See Modifying the behavior of hot-relocation on page 558.
You can determine which disk is causing the failures in the above example message
by using the following command:
# vxstat -g mydg -s -ff home-02 src-02
The -s option asks for information about individual subdisks, and the -ff option
displays the number of failed read and write operations. The following output display
is typical:
TYP NAME
sd mydg01-04
sd mydg01-06
sd mydg02-03
sd mydg02-04
FAILED
READS
WRITES
0
0
0
0
1
0
1
0
This example shows failures on reading from subdisks mydg02-03 and mydg02-04
of disk mydg02.
Hot-relocation automatically relocates the affected subdisks and initiates any
necessary recovery procedures. However, if relocation is not possible or the
hot-relocation feature is disabled, you must investigate the problem and attempt to
recover the plexes. Errors can be caused by cabling failures, so check the cables
connecting your disks to your system. If there are obvious problems, correct them
and recover the plexes using the following command:
# vxrecover -b -g mydg home src
This starts recovery of the failed plexes in the background (the command prompt
reappears before the operation completes). If an error message appears later, or
if the plexes become detached again and there are no obvious cabling failures,
replace the disk.
Complete disk failure mail messages

If a disk fails completely and hot-relocation is enabled, the mail message lists the
disk that failed and all plexes that use the disk. For example, you can receive mail
as shown in this example display:
To: root
548
Failures have been detected by the Veritas Volume Manager:

failed disks:
mydg02
failed plexes:
home-02
src-02
mkting-01
failing disks:
mydg02
This message shows that mydg02 was detached by a failure. When a disk is
detached, I/O cannot get to that disk. The plexes home-02, src-02, and mkting-01
were also detached (probably because of the failure of the disk).
One possible cause of the problem could be a cabling error.
See Partial disk failure mail messages on page 547.
If the problem is not a cabling error, replace the disk.
How space is chosen for relocation

A spare disk must be initialized and placed in a disk group as a spare before it can
be used for replacement purposes. If no disks have been designated as spares
when a failure occurs, VxVM automatically uses any available free space in the
disk group in which the failure occurs. If there is not enough spare disk space, a
combination of spare space and free space is used.
When selecting space for relocation, hot-relocation preserves the redundancy
characteristics of the VxVM object to which the relocated subdisk belongs. For
example, hot-relocation ensures that subdisks from a failed plex are not relocated
to a disk containing a mirror of the failed plex. If redundancy cannot be preserved
using any available spare disks and/or free space, hot-relocation does not take
place. If relocation is not possible, the system administrator is notified and no further
action is taken.
From the eligible disks, hot-relocation attempts to use the disk that is closest to
the failed disk. The value of closeness depends on the controller and disk number
of the failed disk. A disk on the same controller as the failed disk is closer than a
disk on a different controller.
549
Hot-relocation tries to move all subdisks from a failing drive to the same destination
disk, if possible.
When hot-relocation takes place, the failed subdisk is removed from the configuration
database, and VxVM ensures that the disk space used by the failed subdisk is not
recycled as free space.

By designating spare disks and making free space on disks available for use by
hot relocation, you can control how disk space is used for relocating subdisks in
the event of a disk failure. If the combined free space and space on spare disks is
not sufficient or does not meet the redundancy constraints, the subdisks are not
relocated.
Find out which disks are spares or are excluded from hot-relocation.
See Displaying spare disk information on page 550.
You can prepare for hot-relocation by designating one or more disks per disk group
as hot-relocation spares.
See Marking a disk as a hot-relocation spare on page 551.
If required, you can remove a disk from use as a hot-relocation spare
See Removing a disk from use as a hot-relocation spare on page 552.
If no spares are available at the time of a failure or if there is not enough space on
the spares, free space on disks in the same disk group as where the failure occurred
is automatically used, unless it has been excluded from hot-relocation use.
See Excluding a disk from hot-relocation use on page 553.
See Making a disk available for hot-relocation use on page 554.
Depending on the locations of the relocated subdisks, you can choose to move
them elsewhere after hot-relocation occurs.
See Configuring hot-relocation to use only spare disks on page 554.
After a successful relocation, remove and replace the failed disk.
Displaying spare disk information

Use the following command to display information about spare disks that are
available for relocation:
550
# vxdg [-g diskgroup] spare
The following is example output:

GROUP DISK
DEVICE
TAG
OFFSET
LENGTH
FLAGS
mydg
sdc
sdc
658007
mydg02
Here mydg02 is the only disk designated as a spare in the mydg disk group. The
LENGTH field indicates how much spare space is currently available on mydg02 for
relocation.
The following commands can also be used to display information about disks that
are currently designated as spares:
vxdisk list lists disk information and displays spare disks with a spare flag.
vxprint lists disk and other information and displays spare disks with a SPARE
flag.
The list menu item on the vxdiskadm main menu lists all disks including spare
disks.

Hot-relocation allows the system to react automatically to I/O failure by relocating
redundant subdisks to other disks. Hot-relocation then restores the affected Veritas
Volume Manager (VxVM) objects and data. If a disk has already been designated
as a spare in the disk group, the subdisks from the failed disk are relocated to the
spare disk.
If no disk has been designated as a spare, any suitable free space in the disk group
is used.
To designate a disk as a hot-relocation spare, enter the following command:
# vxedit [-g diskgroup] set spare=on diskname
where diskname is the disk media name.

For example, to designate mydg01 as a spare in the disk group, mydg, enter the
following command:
# vxedit -g mydg set spare=on mydg01
You can use the vxdisk list command to confirm that this disk is now a spare;
mydg01 should be listed with a spare flag.
Any VxVM disk in this disk group can now use this disk as a spare in the event of
a failure. If a disk fails, hot-relocation automatically occurs (if possible). You are
551
notified of the failure and relocation through electronic mail. After successful
relocation, you may want to replace the failed disk.
To use vxdiskadm to designate a disk as a hot-relocation spare
Select Mark a disk as a spare for a disk group from the vxdiskadm
main menu.
At the following prompt, enter a disk media name (such as mydg01):

The following notice is displayed when the disk has been marked as spare:
VxVM NOTICE V-5-2-219 Marking of mydg01 in mydg as a spare disk
is complete.
At the following prompt, indicate whether you want to add more disks as spares
(y) or return to the vxdiskadm main menu (n):
Mark another disk as a spare? [y,n,q,?] (default: n)
Any VxVM disk in this disk group can now use this disk as a spare in the event
of a failure. If a disk fails, hot-relocation should automatically occur (if possible).
You should be notified of the failure and relocation through electronic mail.
After successful relocation, you may want to replace the failed disk.

While a disk is designated as a spare, the space on that disk is not used for the
creation of VxVM objects within its disk group. If necessary, you can free a spare
disk for general use by removing it from the pool of hot-relocation disks.
To remove a spare from the hot-relocation pool, use the following command:
# vxedit [-g diskgroup] set spare=off diskname

For example, to make mydg01 available for normal use in the disk group, mydg, use
# vxedit -g mydg set spare=off mydg01
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To use vxdiskadm to remove a disk from the hot-relocation pool
Select Turn off the spare flag on a disk from the vxdiskadm main menu.
At the following prompt, enter the disk media name of a spare disk (such as
mydg01):
The following confirmation is displayed:

VxVM NOTICE V-5-2-143 Disk mydg01 in mydg no longer marked as
a spare disk.
At the following prompt, indicate whether you want to disable more spare disks
Turn off spare flag on another disk? [y,n,q,?] (default: n)

To exclude a disk from hot-relocation use, use the following command:
# vxedit [-g diskgroup] set nohotuse=on diskname

To use vxdiskadm to exclude a disk from hot-relocation use
Select Exclude a disk from hot-relocation use from the vxdiskadm

main menu.
At the following prompt, enter the disk media name (such as mydg01):

VxVM INFO V-5-2-925 Excluding mydg01 in mydg from hotrelocation use is complete.
At the following prompt, indicate whether you want to add more disks to be
excluded from hot-relocation (y) or return to the vxdiskadm main menu (n):
Exclude another disk from hot-relocation use? [y,n,q,?]
(default: n)
553

Free space is used automatically by hot-relocation in case spare space is not
sufficient to relocate failed subdisks. You can limit this free space usage by
hot-relocation by specifying which free disks should not be touched by hot-relocation.
If a disk was previously excluded from hot-relocation use, you can undo the exclusion
and add the disk back to the hot-relocation pool.
To make a disk available for hot-relocation use, use the following command:
# vxedit [-g diskgroup] set nohotuse=off diskname
To use vxdiskadm to make a disk available for hot-relocation use
Select Make a disk available for hot-relocation use from the vxdiskadm
main menu.
At the following prompt, enter the disk media name (such as mydg01):

V-5-2-932 Making mydg01 in mydg available for hot-relocation
use is complete.
At the following prompt, indicate whether you want to add more disks to be
excluded from hot-relocation (y) or return to the vxdiskadm main menu (n):
Make another disk available for hot-relocation use? [y,n,q,?]
(default: n)
Configuring hot-relocation to use only spare disks

If you want VxVM to use only spare disks for hot-relocation, add the following line
to the file /etc/default/vxassist:
spare=only
If not enough storage can be located on disks marked as spare, the relocation fails.
Any free space on non-spare disks is not used.
554

When hot-relocation occurs, subdisks are relocated to spare disks and/or available
free space within the disk group. The new subdisk locations may not provide the
same performance or data layout that existed before hot-relocation took place. You
can move the relocated subdisks (after hot-relocation is complete) to improve
performance.
You can also move the relocated subdisks of the spare disks to keep the spare disk
space free for future hot-relocation needs. Another reason for moving subdisks is
to recreate the configuration that existed before hot-relocation occurred.
During hot-relocation, one of the electronic mail messages sent to root is shown
in the following example:
To: root
Attempting to relocate subdisk mydg02-03 from plex home-02.
Dev_offset 0 length 1164 dm_name mydg02 da_name sdh.
The available plex home-01 will be used to recover the data.
This message has information about the subdisk before relocation and can be used
to decide where to move the subdisk after relocation.
Here is an example message that shows the new location for the relocated subdisk:
To: root
Subject: Attempting VxVM relocation on host teal
Volume home Subdisk mydg02-03 relocated to mydg05-01,
but not yet recovered.
Before you move any relocated subdisks, fix or replace the disk that failed.
Once this is done, you can move a relocated subdisk back to the original disk as
described in the following sections.
Warning: During subdisk move operations, RAID-5 volumes are not redundant.
Moving relocated subdisks using vxunreloc

VxVM hot-relocation allows the system to automatically react to I/O failures on a
redundant VxVM object at the subdisk level and then take necessary action to make
555
the object available again. This mechanism detects I/O failures in a subdisk,
relocates the subdisk, and recovers the plex associated with the subdisk. After the
disk has been replaced, vxunreloc allows you to restore the system back to the
configuration that existed before the disk failure. vxunreloc allows you to move
the hot-relocated subdisks back onto a disk that was replaced due to a failure.
When vxunreloc is invoked, you must specify the disk media name where the
hot-relocated subdisks originally resided. When vxunreloc moves the subdisks, it
moves them to the original offsets. If you try to unrelocate to a disk that is smaller
than the original disk that failed,vxunreloc does nothing except return an error.
vxunreloc provides an option to move the subdisks to a different disk from where
they were originally relocated. It also provides an option to unrelocate subdisks to
a different offset as long as the destination disk is large enough to accommodate
all the subdisks.
If vxunreloc cannot replace the subdisks back to the same original offsets, a force
option is available that allows you to move the subdisks to a specified disk without
using the original offsets.
See the vxunreloc(1M) manual page.
The examples in the following sections demonstrate the use of vxunreloc.
Moving hot-relocated subdisks back to their original disk

Assume that mydg01 failed and all the subdisks were relocated. After mydg01 is
replaced, vxunreloc can be used to move all the hot-relocated subdisks back to
mydg01.
# vxunreloc -g mydg mydg01
Moving hot-relocated subdisks back to a different disk

The vxunreloc utility provides the -n option to move the subdisks to a different
disk from where they were originally relocated.
Assume that mydg01 failed, and that all of the subdisks that resided on it were
hot-relocated to other disks. vxunreloc provides an option to move the subdisks
to a different disk from where they were originally relocated. After the disk is repaired,
it is added back to the disk group using a different name, for example, mydg05. If
you want to move all the hot-relocated subdisks back to the new disk, the following
command can be used:
# vxunreloc -g mydg -n mydg05 mydg01
556
The destination disk should have at least as much storage capacity as was in use
on the original disk. If there is not enough space, the unrelocate operation will fail
and none of the subdisks will be moved.
Forcing hot-relocated subdisks to accept different offsets

By default, vxunreloc attempts to move hot-relocated subdisks to their original
offsets. However, vxunreloc fails if any subdisks already occupy part or all of the
area on the destination disk. In such a case, you have two choices:
Move the existing subdisks somewhere else, and then re-run vxunreloc.
Use the -f option provided by vxunreloc to move the subdisks to the destination
disk, but leave it to vxunreloc to find the space on the disk. As long as the
destination disk is large enough so that the region of the disk for storing subdisks
can accommodate all subdisks, all the hot-relocated subdisks will be unrelocated
without using the original offsets.
Assume that mydg01 failed and the subdisks were relocated and that you want to
move the hot-relocated subdisks to mydg05 where some subdisks already reside.
You can use the force option to move the hot-relocated subdisks to mydg05, but not
to the exact offsets:
# vxunreloc -g mydg -f -n mydg05 mydg01
Examining which subdisks were hot-relocated from a disk

If a subdisk was hot relocated more than once due to multiple disk failures, it can
still be unrelocated back to its original location. For instance, if mydg01 failed and
a subdisk named mydg01-01 was moved to mydg02, and then mydg02 experienced
disk failure, all of the subdisks residing on it, including the one which was
hot-relocated to it, will be moved again. When mydg02 was replaced, a vxunreloc
operation for mydg02 will do nothing to the hot-relocated subdisk mydg01-01.
However, a replacement of mydg01 followed by a vxunreloc operation, moves
mydg01-01 back to mydg01 if vxunreloc is run immediately after the replacement.
After the disk that experienced the failure is fixed or replaced, vxunreloc can be
used to move all the hot-relocated subdisks back to the disk. When a subdisk is
hot-relocated, its original disk-media name and the offset into the disk are saved
in the configuration database. When a subdisk is moved back to the original disk
or to a new disk using vxunreloc, the information is erased. The original disk-media
name and the original offset are saved in the subdisk records. To print all of the
subdisks that were hot-relocated from mydg01 in the mydg disk group, use the
following command:
# vxprint -g mydg -se 'sd_orig_dmname="mydg01"'
557
Restarting vxunreloc after errors

vxunreloc moves subdisks in three phases:
vxunreloc creates as many subdisks on the specified destination disk as there
are subdisks to be unrelocated. The string UNRELOC is placed in the comment

field of each subdisk record.
Creating the subdisk is an all-or-nothing operation. If vxunreloc cannot create
all the subdisks successfully, none are created, and vxunreloc exits.
vxunreloc moves the data from each subdisk to the corresponding newly created
subdisk on the destination disk.
When all subdisk data moves have been completed successfully, vxunreloc
sets the comment field to the null string for each subdisk on the destination disk
whose comment field is currently set to UNRELOC.
The comment fields of all the subdisks on the destination disk remain marked as
UNRELOC until phase 3 completes. If its execution is interrupted, vxunreloc can
subsequently re-use subdisks that it created on the destination disk during a previous
execution, but it does not use any data that was moved to the destination disk.
If a subdisk data move fails, vxunreloc displays an error message and exits.
Determine the problem that caused the move to fail, and fix it before re-executing
vxunreloc.
If the system goes down after the new subdisks are created on the destination disk,
but before all the data has been moved, re-execute vxunreloc when the system
has been rebooted.
Warning: Do not modify the string UNRELOC in the comment field of a subdisk record.

Hot-relocation is turned on as long as the vxrelocd process is running. You should
normally leave hot-relocation turned on so that you can take advantage of this
feature if a failure occurs. However, if you choose to disable hot-relocation (perhaps
because you do not want the free space on your disks to be used for relocation),
you can prevent vxrelocd from starting at system startup time by editing the
/etc/init.d/vxvm-recover startup file that invokes vxrelocd.
If the hot-relocation daemon is disabled, then automatic storage reclamation on
deleted volumes is also disabled.
You can alter the behavior of vxrelocd as follows:
558
To prevent vxrelocd starting, comment out the entry that invokes it in the
startup file:
# nohup vxrelocd root &
By default, vxrelocd sends electronic mail to root when failures are detected
and relocation actions are performed. You can instruct vxrelocd to notify
additional users by adding the appropriate user names as shown here:
# nohup vxrelocd root user1 user2 &
To reduce the impact of recovery on system performance, you can instruct

vxrelocd to increase the delay between the recovery of each region of the
volume, as shown in the following example:
# nohup vxrelocd -o slow[=IOdelay] root &
where the optional IOdelay value indicates the desired delay in milliseconds.
The default value for the delay is 250 milliseconds.
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Chapter
28
Deduplicating data
About deduplicating data
Deduplicating data
Deduplication results
Deduplication supportability
Deduplication use cases
Deduplication limitations

The data deduplication feature eliminates duplicate blocks used by your data by
comparing blocks across the file system. When the data deduplication feature finds
a duplicate block, it removes the space used and instead creates a pointer to the
common block. If you change the duplicate file, thus making the files no longer
share the same block, then that changed block is saved to disk instead of the pointer.
You can perform post-process periodic deduplication in a file system to eliminate
duplicate data without any continuous cost in CPU overhead. You can verify whether
data is duplicated on demand, and then efficiently and securely eliminate the
duplicates. The deduplication process performs the following tasks:
Scans the file system for changes
Fingerprints the data
Identifies duplicates
Eliminates duplicates after verifying the duplicates
Deduplicating data
The amount of space savings that you get from deduplicating depends on your
data. Deduplicating different data gives different space savings.
You deduplicate data using the fsdedupadm command.
See the fsdedupadm(1M) manual page.
Deduplication requires an Enterprise license.
About deduplication chunk size

The deduplication chunk size, which is also referred to as deduplication granularity,
is the unit at which fingerprints are computed. A valid chunk size is between 4k and
128k and power of two. Once set, the only way to change the chunk size is to
remove and re-enable deduplication on the file system.
You should carefully select the chunk size, as the size has significant impact on
deduplication as well as resource requirements. The size directly affects the number
of fingerprint records in the deduplication database as well as temporary space
required for sorting these records. A smaller chunk size results in a large number
of fingerprints and hence requires a significant amount of space for the deduplication
database.
While the amount of storage that you save after deduplication depends heavily on
the dataset and distribution of duplicates within the dataset, the chunk size can also
affect the savings significantly. You must understand your dataset to get the best
results after deduplication. A general rule of thumb is that a smaller chunk size
saves more storage. A smaller chunk size results in more granular fingerprints and
in general results in identifying more duplicates. However, smaller chunks have
additional costs in terms of database size, deduplication time, and, more importantly,
fragmentation. The deduplication database size can be significantly large for small
chunk sizes. Higher fragmentation normally results in more file system metadata
and hence can require more storage. The space consumed by the deduplication
database and the increased file system metadata can reduce the savings achieved
via deduplication. Additionally, fragmentation can also have a negative effect on
performance. The Veritas File System (VxFS) deduplication algorithms try to reduce
fragmentation by coalescing multiple contiguous duplicate chunks.
Larger chunk sizes normally result in a smaller deduplication database size, faster
deduplication, and less fragmentation. These benefits sometimes come at the cost
of less storage savings. If you have a large number duplicate files that are small in
size, you still can choose a chunk size that is larger than the file size. A larger chunk
size does not affect the deduplication of files that are smaller than the chunk size.
In such cases, the fingerprint is calculated on the whole file, and the files are still
deduplicated.
Symantec recommends a chunk size of 16k or higher.
561
Deduplicating data
The space consumed by the deduplication database is a function of the amount of

data in the file system and the deduplication chunk size. The space consumed by
the deduplication database grows with time as new data is added to file system.
Additional storage is required for temporary use, such as sorting fingerprints. The
temporary storage may be freed after the work completes. Ensure that sufficient
free space is available for deduplication to complete successfully. The deduplication
might not start if the file system free space is less than approximately 15%. The
deduplication sometimes needs more than 15% free space for smaller chunk sizes.
In general, the space consumed reduces significantly with larger chunk sizes.
Symantec recommends that you have approximately 20% free space for 4k chunks.
Deduplication and file system performance

Veritas File System (VxFS) deduplication uses shared extents to save storage when
duplicate data is identified. Shared extents can significantly boost read performance
for certain types of applications. These benefits are the result of the innovative use
of file system page cache for data that resides in shared extents.
The description of the FileSnaps feature contains more information about shared
extents.
See About FileSnaps on page 324.
In general, any application or set of applications that read data residing in shared
extents via multiple files are expected to have better read performance.
About the deduplication scheduler

The deduplication scheduler is a daemon that runs on all nodes and is responsible
for deduplicating data as per the user-specified schedule. The scheduler is started
on a node when you enable deduplication on the file system, but thereafter you
must start the scheduler manually if you previously stopped the scheduler. Each
file system can have its own schedule. The schedule and other configuration
information for a given file system is stored within the file system. The location of
the configuration file is lost+found/dedup/local_config.
The scheduler checks the configuration file every 30 minutes for changes and
incorporates the changes if there are any. This periodic check also looks for newly
mounted file systems. You can incorporate configuration changes immediately by
restarting the scheduler.
When using the scheduler to deduplicate a file system's data automatically, the
evaluation of changes in the file system is done by the File Change Log (FCL)
feature. Scheduling deduplication to occur too infrequently in terms of days can
cause the FCL to roll over, and thus the FCL feature can miss changes to the file
system.
562
Deduplicating data
Deduplicating data
563
Symantec recommends that you schedule deduplication when the system activity
is low. This ensures that the scheduler does not interfere with the regular workload
of the system.
Deduplicating data
You deduplicate data using the fsdedupadm command. The fsdedupadm command
performs the following functions:
Functionality
Command syntax
Enable the deduplication of a fsdedupadm enable [-c chunk_size] [-q] mount_point

file system.
Disable the deduplication of
a file system.
fsdedupadm disable [-q] mount_point
fsdedupadm list mount_point|all

Query the deduplication
configuration of a file system.
Start a deduplication run on a fsdedupadm start [-s] [-q] mount_point
file system.
Stop a deduplication run on a fsdedupadm stop [-q] mount_point
file system.
Query the deduplication
status of a file system.
fsdedupadm status mount_point|all
Enable or disable the skipping fsdedupadm skipshared {true|false} mount_point

of shared extents.
Set the node on which the
scheduled deduplication job
will run.
fsdedupadm setnodelist nodelist mount_point|all
Set the deduplication

schedule for a file system.
fsdedupadm setschedule time mount_point
Initiate a deduplication dry run fsdedupadm dryrun [-o threshold=#] mount_point

on a file system.
Remove the deduplication
configuration file and
deduplication database on a
file system.
fsdedupadm remove mount_point
Deduplicating data
Deduplicating data
564
Functionality
Command syntax
Sets the node on which the

scheduled deduplication job
will be run.
fsdedupadm setnodelist nodelist mount_point|all
fsdedupadm skipshared {true|false} mount_point

If you specify skipshared
"true", the fsdedupadm
command skips shared
extents for the new files. The
default value is "true".
For more information about the keywords, see the fsdedupadm(1M) manual page.
The following example creates a file system, creates duplicate data on the file
system, and deduplicates the file system.
Example of deduplicating a file system
Create the file system fsvol1:

# mkfs -t vxfs /dev/vx/rdsk/fsdg/fsvol1
Mount the file system as /mnt1:

# mount -t vxfs /dev/vx/dsk/fsdg/fsvol1 /mnt1
Make a temporary directory, temp1, on /mnt1 and copy the file1 file into the
directory:
# mkdir /mnt1/temp1
# cd /mnt1/temp1
# cp /root/file1 .
# /opt/VRTS/bin/fsadm -S shared /mnt1
Mountpoint
/mnt1
Size(KB) Available(KB) Used(KB) Logical_Size(KB) Space_Shared(KB)

4194304 3849468
283852
283852
0%
The file1 file is approximately 250 MB, as shown by the output of the fsadm
command.
Deduplicating data
Deduplicating data
Make another temporary directory, temp2, and copy the same file, file1, into
the new directory:
# mkdir /mnt1/temp2
# cd /mnt1/temp2
# cp /root/file1 .
Mountpoint
/mnt1

4194304 3588700
548740
548740
0%
By copying the same file into temp2, you now have duplicate data. The output
of the fsadm command show that you are now using twice the amount of space.
Enable deduplication on the mount point /mnt1:

# /opt/VRTS/bin/fsdedupadm enable -c 4096 /mnt1
# /opt/VRTS/bin/fsdedupadm list /mnt1
Chunksize Enabled SkipShared Schedule NodeList

Filesystem
--------------------------------------------------------------------4096
YES
True
NONE
node1
/mnt1
Start a deduplication run on the mount point /mnt1:

# /opt/VRTS/bin/fsdedupadm start /mnt1
UX:vxfs fsdedupadm: INFO: V-3-20: 0000: deduplication is started
on /mnt1.
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Deduplicating data
Deduplicating data
566
Check status of deduplication:

# /opt/VRTS/bin/fsdedupadm status /mnt1
Saving Status
Node
Type
Filesystem
--------------------------------------------------------------------74%
COMPLETED node1.company1.com MANUAL
/mnt1
2011/07/04 10:56:05 End detecting duplicates and filesystem changes.
Status 0
Verify that the file system was deduplicated by checking how much space you
are using:
Mountpoint
/mnt1

4194304 3834364
299136
566176
47%
The output shows that the used space is nearly identical to when you had only
one copy of the file1 file on the file system.
Enabling and disabling deduplication on a file system

You must enable deduplication on a file system by using the fsdedupadm enable
command before you can use any of the deduplication functionality.
The following example enables deduplication on the file system mounted at /mnt1,
and specifies a chunk size of 4096 bytes for deduplication:
# /opt/VRTS/bin/fsdedupadm enable -c 4096 /mnt1
You can disable deduplication on a file system by using the fsdedupadm disable
command.
The following example disables deduplication on the file system mounted at /mnt1:
# /opt/VRTS/bin/fsdedupadm disable /mnt1
Scheduling deduplication of a file system

You can set a schedule to deduplicate a file system automatically by using the
fsdedupadm setschedule command. You can specify two categories of schedule
options: run periodicity, and type periodicity. The granularity of schedule is limited
to the time of day and the day of the month. The fsdedupadm command applies
any relevant File Change Log tunables when setting the schedule.
See Veritas File System File Change Log administrative interface on page 711.
Deduplicating data
Deduplicating data
You must enable deduplication on the file system before you can set a schedule.
See Enabling and disabling deduplication on a file system on page 566.
You can schedule the deduplication run every hour or every specified number of
hours, and every day or every specified number of days. You can also schedule
the actual deduplication run to occur each time, or every specified number of times
that the scheduled time elapses. During times that deduplication does not occur,
the deduplication run only updates the fingerprints in the database.
The schedule commands are not cumulative. If a deduplication schedule comes
up while the previous deduplication process is running for any reason, the upcoming
deduplication is discarded and an warning message displays.
You can remove a schedule by specifying an empty string enclosed by double
quotes ("") for the schedule.
See the fsdedupadm(1M) manual page.
You must start the fsdedupschd daemon before scheduling the task:
# chkconfig --add fsdedupschd
# service fsdedupschd start
In the following example, deduplication for the file system /vx/fs1 will be done at
midnight, every other day:
# fsdedupadm setschedule "0 */2" /vx/fs1
In the following example, deduplication for the file system /vx/fs1 will be done
twice every day, once at midnight and once at noon:
# fsdedupadm setschedule "0,12 *" /vx/fs1
In the following example, deduplication for the file system /vx/fs1 will be done four
times every day, but only the fourth deduplication run will actually deduplicate the
file system. The other runs will do the scanning and processing. This option achieves
load distribution not only in a system, but also across the cluster.
# fsdedupadm setschedule "0,6,12,18 * 4" /vx/fs1
The following example removes the deduplication schedule from the file system
/vx/fs1:
# fsdedupadm setschedule "" /vx/fs1
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Deduplicating data
Deduplicating data
Performing a deduplication dry run

You can perform a dry run to determine the space savings of deduplication without
actually modifying the file system. You must enable deduplication on the file system
before you can perform a dry run. You can perform a dry run only on a file system
that has not been deduplicated previously.
The following command initiates a deduplication dry run on the file system /mnt1:
# fsdedupadm dryrun /mnt1
You can specify fsdedupadm to perform the actual deduplication by specifying the
-o threshold option. In this case, the fsdedupadm command performs an actual
deduplication run if the expected space savings meets the specified threshold.
The following command initiates a deduplication dry run on the file system /mnt1,
and performs the actual deduplication if the expected space savings crosses the
threshold of 60 percent:
# fsdedupadm dryrun -o threshold=60 /mnt1
Specifying the -o threshold option causes the fsdedupadm command to take

Storage Checkpoints and enable the File Change Log for the file system.
Querying the deduplication status of a file system

You can query the deduplication status of a file system by using the fsdedupadm
status command.
You must enable deduplication on the file system before you can query the
deduplication status.
The following command queries the deduplication status of the file system /mnt1:
# fsdedupadm status /mnt1
The following command queries the deduplication status of all running deduplication
jobs:
# fsdedupadm status all
Starting and stopping the deduplication scheduler daemon

The state of the deduplication scheduler daemon, fsdedupschd, is maintained
across reboots. If you started the fsdedupschd daemon prior to a reboot, the daemon
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Deduplicating data
is automatically restarted after the reboot. If you stopped the fsdedupschd daemon
prior to a reboot, it remains stopped after the reboot. The default fsdedupschd
daemon state is stopped.
You must enable deduplication on the file system before you can start or stop the
scheduler daemon.
The following command starts the fsdedupschd daemon:
# chkconfig --add fsdedupschd
# service fsdedupschd start
The following command stops the fsdedupschd daemon:

# service fsdedupschd stop
# chkconfig --del fsdedupschd
The nature of the data is very important for deciding whether to enable deduplication.
Databases or media files, such as JPEG, MP3, and MOV, might not be the best
candidates for deduplication, as they have very little or no duplicate data. Virtual
machine boot image files (vmdk files), user home directories, and file system with
multiple copies of files are good candidates for deduplication. While smaller
deduplication chunk size normally results into higher storage saving, it takes longer
to deduplicate and requires a larger deduplication database.
Deduplication supportability
Veritas File System (VxFS) supports deduplication in the 6.0 release and later, and
on file system disk layout version 9 and later.
Deduplication use cases

The following list includes several cases for which you would want to use the
deduplication feature:
Home directories
User home directories often have multiple versions of the same

files or file that have similar content, and therefore have
redundant data that you can deduplicate.
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Deduplicating data
Source code directories
Source code repositories usually have multiple files with

incremental changes. The data that does not change from one
file to the next can be deduplicated.
vmdk files
Once several virtual machines are cloned by using the FileSnap

feature, the cloned virtual machines are subjected to operating
system and security patches over their lifetime. As individual
virtual machines cloned from a common sourcethe golden
imagedeviate from the source as a result of such activity,
there is large amount of common content between them. Over
time, this results in the loss of the initial storage savings.
Deduplication of the new blocks added to these files restores
the storage savings.
The deduplication feature has the following limitations:
A full backup of a deduplicated Veritas File System (VxFS) file system can
require as much space in the target as a file system that has not been
deduplicated. For example, if you have 2 TB of data that occupies 1 TB worth
of disk space in the file system after deduplication, this data requires 2 TB of
space on the target to back up the file system, assuming that the backup target
does not do any deduplication. Similarly, when you restore such a file system,
you must have 2 TB on the file system to restore the complete data. However,
this freshly restored file system can be deduplicated again to regain the space
savings. After a full file system restore, Symantec recommends that you remove
any existing deduplication configuration using the fsdedupadm remove command
and that you reconfigure deduplication using the fsdedupadm enable command.
Deduplication is limited to a volume's primary fileset.
Deduplication does not support mounted clone and snapshot mounted file
system.
After you restore data from a backup, you must deduplicate the restored data
to regain any space savings provided by deduplication.
If you use the cross-platform data sharing feature to convert data from one
platform to another, you must remove the deduplication configuration file and
database, re-enable deduplication, and restart deduplication after the conversion.
The following example shows the commands that you must run, and you must
run the commands in the order shown:
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Deduplicating data
# /opt/VRTS/bin/fsdedupadm remove /mnt1

# /opt/VRTS/bin/fsdedupadm enable /mnt1
# /opt/VRTS/bin/fsdedupadm start /mnt1
You cannot use the FlashBackup feature of NetBackup in conjunction with the
data deduplication feature, because FlashBackup does not support disk layout
Version 8 and 9.
571
Chapter
29
Compressing files
About compressing files
Compressing files with the vxcompress command
Interaction of compressed files and other commands
Interaction of compressed files and other features
Interaction of compressed files and applications
Use cases for compressing files

Compressing files reduces the space used, while retaining the accessibility of the
files and being transparent to applications. Compressed files look and behave
almost exactly like uncompressed files: the compressed files have the same name,
and can be read and written as with uncompressed files. Reads cause data to be
uncompressed in memory, only; the on-disk copy of the file remains compressed.
In contrast, after a write, the new data is uncompressed on disk.
Only user data is compressible. You cannot compress Veritas File System (VxFS)
metadata.
After you compress a file, the inode number does not change, and file descriptors
opened before the compression are still valid after the compression.
Compression is a property of a file. Thus, if you compress all files in a directory, for
example, any files that you later copy into that directory do not automatically get
compressed. You can compress the new files at any time by compressing the files
in the directory again.
You compress files with the vxcompress command.
Compressing files
See Compressing files with the vxcompress command on page 574.

See the vxcompress(1) manual page.
To compress files, you must have VxFS file systems with disk layout Version 9 or
later.
Note: When you back up compressed files to tape, the backup program stores the
data in an uncompressed format. The files are uncompressed in memory and
subsequently written to the tape. This results in increased CPU and memory usage
when you back up compressed files.
About the compressed file format

A compressed file is a file with compressed extents. A vxcompress call compresses
all extents of a file. However, writes to the file cause the affected extents to get
uncompressed; the result can be files with both compressed and uncompressed
extents.
About the file compression attributes

When you compress a file with the vxcompress command, vxcompress attaches
the following information to the inode:
Compression algorithm
Compression strength, which is a number from 1 to 9
Compression block size
This information is referred to as the file compression attributes. The purpose of

the attributes are to collect the parameters used to create the compressed file. The
information can then be read by a backup program.
The file compression attributes guarantee that a particular compressed file can only
use one type and strength of compression. Recompressing a file using different
attributes fails. To change the file compression attributes, you must explicitly
uncompress first, and then recompress with the new options, even in the case
where all extents are already uncompressed.
The file compression attributes do not indicate if all extents are compressed. Some
extents might be incompressible, and other extents or even all extents might be
uncompressed due to writes, but the file compression attributes remain. Only an
explicit file uncompression can remove the attributes.
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Compressing files
574
About the file compression block size

The file compression algorithm compresses data in the specified block size, which
defaults to 1MB. Each compression block has its own extent descriptor in the inode.
If the file or the last extent is smaller than the compression block size, then that
smaller size gets compressed. The maximum block size is 1MB.
Extents with data that cannot be compressed are still marked as compressed
extents. Even though such extents could not be compressed, marking these extents
as compressed allows successive compression runs to skip these extents to save
time. Shared extents cannot be compressed and do not get marked as compressed.
Since the file compression algorithm looks at fixed-size blocks, the algorithm finds
these incompressible extents in units of the file compression block size.

You can compress files with the vxcompress command. The vxcompress command
performs the following functions:
Functionality
Command syntax
Compress files or directory trees
vxcompress [-r] file_or_dir ...
Uncompress files or directory trees
vxcompress -u [-r] file_or_dir ...
Report the compression savings in a file or vxcompress {-l|-L} [-r] file_or_dir ...
directory tree
List the supported compression algorithms vxcompress -a
See the vxcompress(1) manual page.

You can specify one or more filenames. If you specify the -r option, then you can
specify directories, and the vxcompress command operates recursively on the
directories.
You can specify the file compression algorithm and strength with the vxcompress
-t command. The default algorithm is gzip, which is currently the only supported
algorithm. The strength is a number from 1 to 9, with a default of 6. Strength 1 gives
the fastest performance with least compression, while strength 9 gives the slowest
performance with the greatest compression. For example, you specify strength 3
gzip compression as "gzip-3".
Compressing files
When reporting the compression details for a file, the vxcompress -l command or
vxcompress -L command displays the following information:
Compression algorithm
Strength
Compression block size
% of file data saved by compression
% of extents that are compressed

This is the percentage of extents in the file that are compressed, without regard
to the size of the extents. This percentage provides an idea of whether it is
worthwhile to recompress the file. After recompression, the percentage is always
100%. However, shared extents are counted as uncompressed, and thus the
percentage will be less than 100% if the file has shared extents.
If you attempt to compress a file with the vxcompress command and the extents
have data that cannot be compressed, the command still marks the file as
compressed and replaces the extents with compressed extent descriptors.
If you recompress a file, you do not need to specify any options with the vxcompress
command. The command automatically uses the options that you used to compress
the file previously.
The following command compresses the file1 file, using the default algorithm and
strength of gzip-6:
$ vxcompress file1
The following command recursively compresses all files below the dir1 directory,
using the gzip algorithm at the highest strength (9):
$ vxcompress -r -t gzip-9 dir1
The following command compresses the file2 file and all files below the dir2
directory, using the gzip algorithm at strength 3, while limiting the vxcompress
command to a single thread and reducing the scheduling priority:
$ vxcompress -r -t gzip-3 file2 dir2
The following command displays the results of compressing the file1 file in
human-friendly units:
$ vxcompress -L file1
%Comp
99%
Physical
1 KB
Logical
159 KB
%Exts
100%
Alg-Str
gzip-6
BSize
1024k
Filename
file1
575
Compressing files
The following command uncompresses the file1 file:

$ vxcompress -u file1

Table 29-1 describes how compressed files interact with other Symantec Storage
Foundation commands and base operating system commands.
Table 29-1
Command
Interaction with compressed files
df
The df command shows the actual blocks in use by the file system.
This number includes the compression savings, but the command
does not display the savings explicitly.
See the df(1) manual page.
du
The du command usually uses the block count and thus implicitly
shows the results of compression, but the GNU du command has an
option to use the file size instead, which is not changed by
compression.
See the du(1) manual page.
fsadm -S
The fsadm -S compressed command reports the space savings

due to compressed files.
See the fsadm_vxfs(1) manual page.
fsmap -p
The fsmap command can report information on compressed and

uncompressed extents with the -p option. The reported logical size
is the size of the uncompressed data, while the reported extent size
is the size of the compressed data on disk. For compressed extents,
the two sizes might differ.
See the fsmap(1) manual page.
ls -l
ls -s
The inode size reported by a stat call is the logical size, as shown by
the ls -l command. This size is not affected by compression. On
the other hand, the block count reflects the actual blocks used. As
such, the ls -s command shows the result of compression.
See the ls(1) manual page.
vxdump
The vxdump command uncompresses compressed extents as it

encounters them, meaning that compression is not preserved across
a backup or restore operation.
576
Compressing files
Table 29-1
(continued)
Command
vxquota
Your quota usage decreases based on the space saved due to

compression.
See the vxquota(1M) manual page.

Table 29-2 describes how compressed files interact with other Symantec Storage
Foundation features.
Table 29-2
Feature
Cross-Platform Data Sharing If you convert a disk or file system from one platform that
supports compression to a platform that does not support
compression and the file system contains compressed files,
the fscdsconv command displays a message that some
files violate the CDS limits and prompts you to confirm if you
want to continue the conversion. If you continue, the
conversion completes successfully, but the compressed files
will not be accessible on the new platform.
File Change Log
The File Change Log feature does not detect file

compressions nor uncompressions.
Shared extents (FileSnap and Shared extents do not get compressed.

deduplication)
Compressed files may be shared with the vxfilesnap
command, though this results in a performance impact when
accessing those files.
SmartTier
The SmartTier feature does not support compression. A

placement policy cannot move existing compressed extents.
Newly-allocated compressed extents follow the existing
placement policy.
Space reservation (setext

-r)
When a file is compressed, any space reserved via the

setext -r command beyond the end-of-file is discarded,
and is not restored when the file is uncompressed. The
setext -r command cannot be used to reserve space for
files that are compressed.
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Compressing files
Table 29-2
(continued)
Feature
Storage Checkpoints
If a file system contains compressed files and you create a

Storage Checkpoint of that file system, you can access those
files normally through the Storage Checkpoint. However,
you cannot compress nor uncompress a file that is already
in a mounted Storage Checkpoint.

In general, applications notice no difference between compressed and
uncompressed files, although reads and writes to compressed extents are slower
than reads and writes to uncompressed extents. When an application reads a
compressed file, the file system does not perform its usual readahead to avoid the
CPU load that this can require. However, when reading from the primary fileset,
the file system uncompresses an entire compression block (default 1 MB) and
leaves these pages in the page cache. Thus, sequential reads of the file usually
only incur an extra cost when crossing a compression block boundary. The situation
is different when reading from a file in a Storage Checkpoint; in this case, nothing
goes into the page cache beyond the data actually requested. For optimal read
performance of a compressed file accessed through a Storage Checkpoint, the
application should use a read size that matches the compression block size.
When writing to compressed extents, ensure that you have sufficient disk space
and disk quota limits for the new uncompressed extents since the write
uncompresses the extents. If you do not have sufficient disk space, the write can
fail with the ENOSPC error. If you do not have enough disk quota, the write can fail
with the EDQUOT error.
An application that reads data from a compressed file and then copies the file
elsewhere, such as tar, cpio, cp, or vi, does not preserve compression in the new
data. The same is true of some backup programs.
Backup programs that read file data through the name space do not notice that the
file is compressed. The backup program receives uncompressed data, and the
compression is lost.
You cannot use the FlashBackup feature of NetBackup in conjunction with the file
compression feature, because FlashBackup does not support disk layout Version
8 and 9.
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Compressing files

The following list contains common use case categories:
Compressed files and databases
Compressing all files that meet the specified criteria
Compressed files and databases

Compressing files helps to reduce the storage cost in a database environment. For
Oracle databases, compression provides an excellent value add to reduce storage
cost for archived logs, partitioned tables, and infrequently accessed tablespaces
and datafiles. The compression ratio of database files depends on the type of object
stored in the datafiles. Oracle traditionally stores TABLES and INDEXES in datafiles,
in which case the compression ratio depends on type of columns associated with
the TABLE and the type of keys in the INDEXES. Oracle also has the ability to store
unstructured data, such as XML, spreadsheets, MS Word documents, and pictures,
within a TABLE via the Secured Files feature. These types of unstructured data are
very good candidates for compression. You can achieve up to 90% compression
for archived logs, and about 50% to 65% compression for Oracle datafiles and
indexes.
Oracle database files can be compressed and uncompressed as needed while the
database is active, although this can have a significant performance impact on the
database. Other than reduced I/O response time, compression runs seamlessly
while the Oracle database is online and actively doing transactions to the files.
Compression works seamlessly with advanced I/O methods, such as direct I/O,
asychronous I/O, concurrent I/O, ODM, and Cached ODM. Any updates and new
inserts to the datafile result in uncompressing the portion of the file associated with
the write. The queries get uncompressed data in memory and the file remains
compressed.
Note: You can run the vxcompress command as a DBA user.
The following use cases apply to databases:
Supported database versions and environment
Compressing archive logs
Compressing read-only tablespaces
Compressing infrequently accessed table partitions
Compressing infrequently accessed datafiles
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Best practices for compressing files in an Oracle database
Supported database versions and environment

Compression is supported in Symantec Storage Foundation (SF), Symantec Storage
Foundation and High Availability (SFHA), Symantec Storage Foundation for Oracle
RAC (SFRAC), and Symantec Storage Foundation Cluster File System High
Availability (SFCFSHA). In a clustered environment, such as SFRAC and SFCFSHA,
Symantec recommends that you compress files on a node that has minimal load.
In a Fast Failover SFCFSHA environment, Symantec recommends that you
compress files on a passive node where the database is offline.
Compressing archive logs

Archive logs are critical files required for database recovery. In a busy online
transaction processing (OLTP) database, several gigabytes of archive logs are
generated each day. Company guidelines often mandate preserving archive logs
for several days. The Oracle archive logs are read-only files and are never updated
after they are generated. During recovery, Oracle reads archive logs sequentially.
As such, archive logs are very good candidates for compression, and archive logs
are highly compressible.
The following example procedure compresses all archive logs that are older than
a day.
To compress all archive logs that are older than a day
As an Oracle DBA, run the following query and get the archive log location:
SQL> select destination from v$archive_dest where status = 'VALID'
and valid_now = 'YES';
Assume /oraarch/MYDB is the archive log destination.
Compress all of the archive logs that are older than a day:
$ find /oraarch/MYDB -mtime +1 -exec /opt/VRTS/bin/vxcompress {} \;
You can run this step daily via a scheduler, such as cron.
Compressing read-only tablespaces

In a large database environment, it is a common practice to keep static tablespaces
that do not have any changes in read-only mode. The primary purpose of read-only
tablespaces is to eliminate the need to perform backup and recovery of large, static
portions of a database. Read-only tablespaces also provide a way to protecting
historical data so that users cannot modify it. Making a tablespace read-only prevents
Compressing files
updates on all tables and objects residing in the tablespace, regardless of a user's
update privilege level. These kinds of read-only tablespaces are excellent candidates
for compression. In some cases such as month end reports, there may be large
queries executed against these read-only tablespaces. To make the report run
faster, you can uncompress the tablespace on demand before running the monthly
reports.
In the following example, a sporting goods company has its inventory divided into
two tablespaces: winter_items and summer_items. In the end of the Spring season,
you can compress the winter_item tablespace and uncompress the summer_item
tablespace. You can do the reverse actions at end of the Summer season. The
following example procedure performs these tasks.
To compress and uncompress tablespaces depending on the season
Using SQL, get a list of files in each tablespace and store the result in the files
summer_files and winter_files:
SQL> select file_name from dba_data_files where
tablespace_name = 'WINTER_ITEM';
Store the result in the winter_files file.

SQL> select
file_name from dba_data_files where
tablespace_name = 'SUMMER_ITEM';
Store the result in the summer_files file.
Compress the winter_files file:

$ /opt/VRTS/bin/vxcompress `/bin/cat winter_files`
Uncompress the summer_files file:

$ /opt/VRTS/bin/vxcompress -u `/bin/cat summer_files`
Compressing infrequently accessed table partitions

Partitioned tables is a frequently used feature for large Oracle databases. Table
partitioning improves database queries and updates because partitioning helps
parallelizing transactions that use Parallel Queries. Partitioning also makes
maintenance of database easy and improves the availability of TABLES. If a partition
is down, only the corresponding portion of the TABLE goes offline and the rest of
the TABLE remains online. In a telecommunications environment, a common practice
is to partition a 'call_details' table by month or quarter. The contents in the partition
are less active as the partition gets older. The new records are added to a new
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Compressing files
582
partition, and previous quarter records do not get updated. Since telecommunications
databases are generally very large, compressing last years data provides great
savings.
In the following example, assume that the table CALL_DETAIL is partitioned by
quarters, and the partition names are CALL_2010_Q1, CALL_2010_Q2, and
CALL_2011_Q1, and so on. In the first Quarter of 2011, you can compress the
CALL_2010_Q1 data.
To compress the CALL_2010_Q1 partition
Use SQL to retrieve the filenames belonging to the CALL_2010_Q1 partition:

SQL> select tablespace_name from dba_tab_partitions
where table_name = 'CALL_DETAIL' and partition_name = 'CALL_2010_Q1';
Assume that the query returns "TBS_2010_Q1".
Store the names in the my_compress_files file:

SQL> select file_name from dba_data_files where
tablespace_name = 'TBS_2010_Q1';
Store the result in the my_compress_files file.
Compress the files:

$ /opt/VRTS/bin/vxcompress `/bin/cat my_compress_files`
Compressing infrequently accessed datafiles

Many customer databases do not use the Oracle partitioning feature. If partitioning
is not used, then you can use Oracle catalog queries to identify datafiles that are
not very active. Periodically, you can query the catalog tables and identify the least
active datafiles and compress those files, as illustrated in the following example
procedure.
Compressing files
To identify the least active datafiles and compress those files
Query v$filestat and identify the least active datafiles:

SQL> select
name, phyrds + phywrts 'TOT_IO' from v$datafile d
and v$filestat f where d.file# = f.file# order by TOT_IO;
Select files that have the least I/O activity from the report and compress those
files:
$ /opt/VRTS/bin/vxcompress file1 file2 file3 ...
Periodically run the query again to ensure that the compressed files do not
have increased I/O activity. If I/O activity increases, uncompress the files:
$ /opt/VRTS/bin/vxcompress -u file1 file2 file3 ...
Best practices for compressing files in an Oracle database

Even though an Oracle database runs without any errors when files are compressed,
increased I/O to compressed files decreases database performance. Use the
following guidelines for compressing Oracle datafiles:
Do not compress database control files.
Do not compress files belonging to TEMPORARY tablespaces.
Do not compress files belonging to SYSTEM and SYSAUX tablespace.
Monitor the I/O activity on compressed files periodically and uncompress the
files if I/O activity increases.
Compressing all files that meet the specified criteria

You can find all files that meet the specified criteria and pipe the results to the
vxcompress command to compress all of those files. The following example
compresses all files in /mnt that have not been modified for more than 30 days:
$ find /mnt -mtime +30 | xargs /opt/VRTS/bin/vxcompress
583
Section
Administering storage
Chapter 30. Managing volumes and disk groups
Chapter 31. Rootability
Chapter 32. Quotas
Chapter 33. File Change Log
Chapter
30
Managing volumes and disk

groups
Rules for determining the default disk group
Moving volumes or disks
Monitoring and controlling tasks
Using vxnotify to monitor configuration changes
Performing online relayout
Adding a mirror to a volume
Configuring SmartMove
Removing a mirror
Setting tags on volumes
Managing disk groups
Managing plexes and subdisks
Decommissioning storage

You should use the -g option to specify a disk group to Veritas Volume Manager
(VxVM) commands that accept this option. If you do not specify the disk group,
VxVM applies rules in the following order until it determines a disk group name:
Managing volumes and disk groups

Use the default disk group name that is specified by the environment variable
VXVM_DEFAULTDG. This variable can also be set to one of the reserved
system-wide disk group names: bootdg, defaultdg, or nodg.
See Displaying the system-wide boot disk group on page 586.
If the variable is undefined, the following rule is applied.
Use the disk group that has been assigned to the system-wide default disk group
alias, defaultdg.
See Displaying and specifying the system-wide default disk group on page 586.
If this alias is undefined, the following rule is applied.
If the operation can be performed without requiring a disk group name (for
example, an edit operation on disk access records), do so.
If none of these rules succeeds, the requested operation fails.

Warning: In releases of VxVM prior to 4.0, a subset of commands tried to determine
the disk group by searching for the object name that was being operated upon by
a command. This functionality is no longer supported. Scripts that rely on determining
the disk group from an object name may fail.
Displaying the system-wide boot disk group

To display the currently defined system-wide boot disk group, use the following
command:
# vxdg bootdg
See the vxdg(1M) manual page.
Displaying and specifying the system-wide default disk group

Veritas Volume Manager (VxVM) enables you to define a system-wide default disk
group.
To display the currently defined system-wide default disk group, use the following
command:
#
vxdg defaultdg
If a default disk group has not been defined, nodg is displayed.

You can also use the following command to display the default disk group:
# vxprint -Gng defaultdg 2>/dev/null
586

In this case, if there is no default disk group, nothing is displayed.

See the vxprint(1M) manual page.
Use the following command to specify the name of the disk group that is aliased
by defaultdg:
# vxdctl defaultdg diskgroup
Where diskgroup is one of the following:
A specified disk group name.

The specified disk group is not required to exist on the system.
bootdg
Sets the default disk group to be the same as the currently defined system-wide
boot disk group.
nodg
Specifies that the default disk group is undefined.


This section describes moving volumes or disks.
Moving volumes from a VxVM disk

Before you disable or remove a disk, you can move the data from that disk to other
disks on the system that have sufficient space.
To move volumes from a disk
From the vxdiskadm main menu, select Move volumes from a disk .
At the following prompt, enter the disk name of the disk whose volumes you
want to move, as follows:
You can now optionally specify a list of disks to which the volume(s) should be
moved. At the prompt, do one of the following:
Press Enter to move the volumes onto available space in the disk group.
Specify the disks in the disk group that should be used, as follows:
Enter disks [<disk ...>,list]

VxVM NOTICE V-5-2-283 Requested operation is to move all
587

volumes from disk mydg01 in group mydg.

NOTE: This operation can take a long time to complete.
As the volumes are moved from the disk, the vxdiskadm program displays the
status of the operation:
VxVM vxevac INFO V-5-2-24 Move volume voltest ...
When the volumes have all been moved, the vxdiskadm program displays the
following success message:
VxVM INFO V-5-2-188 Evacuation of disk mydg02 is complete.
At the following prompt, indicate whether you want to move volumes from
another disk (y) or return to the vxdiskadm main menu (n):
Move volumes from another disk? [y,n,q,?] (default: n)
Moving disks between disk groups

To move an unused disk between disk groups, remove the disk from one disk group
and add it to the other. For example, to move the physical disk sdc (attached with
the disk name salesdg04) from disk group salesdg and add it to disk group mktdg,
use the following commands:
# vxdg -g salesdg rmdisk salesdg04
# vxdg -g mktdg adddisk mktdg02=sdc
Warning: This procedure does not save the configurations nor data on the disks.
You can also move a disk by using the vxdiskadm command. Select Remove a
disk from the main menu, and then select Add or initialize a disk.
To move disks and preserve the data on these disks, along with VxVM objects,
such as volumes:
See Moving objects between disk groups on page 596.
588

Reorganizing the contents of disk groups

There are several circumstances under which you might want to reorganize the
contents of your existing disk groups:
To group volumes or disks differently as the needs of your organization change.

For example, you might want to split disk groups to match the boundaries of
separate departments, or to join disk groups when departments are merged.
To isolate volumes or disks from a disk group, and process them independently
on the same host or on a different host. This allows you to implement off-host
processing solutions for the purposes of backup or decision support.
To reduce the size of a disk groups configuration database in the event that its
private region is nearly full. This is a much simpler solution than the alternative
of trying to grow the private region.
To perform online maintenance and upgrading of fault-tolerant systems that can

be split into separate hosts for this purpose, and then rejoined.
Use the vxdg command to reorganize your disk groups.

The vxdg command provides the following operations for reorganizing disk groups:
The move operation moves a self-contained set of VxVM objects between

imported disk groups. This operation fails if it would remove all the disks from
the source disk group. Volume states are preserved across the move.
Figure 30-1 shows the move operation.
589

Figure 30-1
Disk group move operation
Source Disk Group
Target Disk Group
Move
Source Disk Group
After move
Target Disk Group
The split operation removes a self-contained set of VxVM objects from an

imported disk group, and moves them to a newly created target disk group. This
operation fails if it would remove all the disks from the source disk group, or if
an imported disk group exists with the same name as the target disk group. An
existing deported disk group is destroyed if it has the same name as the target
disk group (as is the case for the vxdg init command).
Figure 30-2 shows the split operation.
590

Figure 30-2
Disk group split operation
Source disk group
Disks to be split into new disk group
Source disk group
After split
New target disk group
The join operation removes all VxVM objects from an imported disk group and
moves them to an imported target disk group. The source disk group is removed
when the join is complete.
Figure 30-3 shows the join operation.
591

Figure 30-3
Disk group join operation
Source disk group
Target disk group
Join
After join
Target disk group
These operations are performed on VxVM objects such as disks or top-level

volumes, and include all component objects such as sub-volumes, plexes and
subdisks. The objects to be moved must be self-contained, meaning that the disks
that are moved must not contain any other objects that are not intended for the
move.
For site-consistent disk groups, any of the move operations (move, split, and join)
fail if the VxVM objects that are moved would not meet the site consistency
conditions after the move. For example, a volume that is being moved may not
have a plex on one of the sites configured in the target disk group. The volume
would not meet the conditions for the allsites flag in the target disk group. Use the
-f (force) option to enable the operation to succeed, by turning off the allsites flag
on the object.
If you specify one or more disks to be moved, all VxVM objects on the disks are
moved. You can use the -o expand option to ensure that vxdg moves all disks on
which the specified objects are configured. Take care when doing this as the result
may not always be what you expect. You can use the listmove operation with vxdg
to help you establish what is the self-contained set of objects that corresponds to
a specified set of objects.
592

Warning: Before moving volumes between disk groups, stop all applications that
are accessing the volumes, and unmount all file systems that are configured on
these volumes.
If the system crashes or a hardware subsystem fails, VxVM attempts to complete
or reverse an incomplete disk group reconfiguration when the system is restarted
or the hardware subsystem is repaired, depending on how far the reconfiguration
had progressed. If one of the disk groups is no longer available because it has been
imported by another host or because it no longer exists, you must recover the disk
group manually.
See the Symantec Storage Foundation and High Availability Solutions
Limitations of disk group split and join

The disk group split and join feature has the following limitations:
Disk groups involved in a move, split or join must be version 90 or greater.

See Upgrading the disk group version on page 622.
The reconfiguration must involve an integral number of physical disks.
Objects to be moved must not contain open volumes.
Disks cannot be moved between CDS and non-CDS compatible disk groups.
By default, VxVM automatically recovers and starts the volumes following a disk
group move, split or join. If you have turned off the automatic recovery feature,
volumes are disabled after a move, split, or join. Use the vxrecover -m and
vxvol startall commands to recover and restart the volumes.
See Setting the automatic recovery of volumes on page 629.
Data change objects (DCOs) and snap objects that have been dissociated by
Persistent FastResync cannot be moved between disk groups.
Veritas Volume Replicator (VVR) objects cannot be moved between disk groups.
For a disk group move to succeed, the source disk group must contain at least
one disk that can store copies of the configuration database after the move.
For a disk group split to succeed, both the source and target disk groups must
contain at least one disk that can store copies of the configuration database
after the split.
For a disk group move or join to succeed, the configuration database in the
target disk group must be able to accommodate information about all the objects
in the enlarged disk group.
593

Splitting or moving a volume into a different disk group changes the volumes
record ID.
The operation can only be performed on the master node of a cluster if either
the source disk group or the target disk group is shared.
In a cluster environment, disk groups involved in a move or join must both be

private or must both be shared.
If a cache object or volume set that is to be split or moved uses ISP volumes,
the storage pool that contains these volumes must also be specified.
Listing objects potentially affected by a move

To display the VxVM objects that would be moved for a specified list of objects,
# vxdg [-o expand] listmove sourcedg targetdg object ...
The following example lists the objects that would be affected by moving volume
vol1 from disk group mydg to newdg:
# vxdg listmove mydg newdg vol1
mydg01 sda mydg05 sde vol1 vol1-01 vol1-02 mydg01-01 mydg05-01
However, the following command produces an error because only a part of the
volume vol1 is configured on the disk mydg01:
# vxdg listmove mydg newdg mydg01
VxVM vxdg ERROR V-5-2-4597 vxdg listmove mydg newdg failed
VxVM vxdg ERROR V-5-2-3091 mydg05 : Disk not moving, but
subdisks on it are
Specifying the -o expand option, as shown below, ensures that the list of objects
to be moved includes the other disks (in this case, mydg05) that are configured in
vol1:
# vxdg -o expand listmove mydg newdg mydg01
mydg01 sda mydg05 sde vol1 vol1-01 vol1-02 mydg01-01
mydg05-01
Moving DCO volumes between disk groups

When you move the parent volume (such as a snapshot volume) to a different disk
group, its DCO volume must accompany it. If you use the vxassist addlog, vxmake
or vxdco commands to set up a DCO for a volume, you must ensure that the disks
that contain the plexes of the DCO volume accompany their parent volume during
594

the move. You can use the vxprint command on a volume to examine the
configuration of its associated DCO volume.
If you use the vxassist command to create both a volume and its DCO, or the
vxsnap prepare command to add a DCO to a volume, the DCO plexes are
automatically placed on different disks from the data plexes of the parent volume.
In previous releases, version 0 DCO plexes were placed on the same disks as the
data plexes for convenience when performing disk group split and move operations.
As version 20 DCOs support dirty region logging (DRL) in addition to Persistent
FastResync, it is preferable for the DCO plexes to be separated from the data
plexes. This improves the performance of I/O from/to the volume, and provides
resilience for the DRL logs.
Figure 30-4 shows some instances in which it is not be possible to split a disk group
because of the location of the DCO plexes on the disks of the disk group.
See Volume snapshots on page 81.
595

Figure 30-4
Examples of disk groups that can and cannot be split
Volume
data plexes
Snapshot
plex
The disk group can be split as the DCO

plexes are on dedicated disks, and can
therefore accompany the disks that
contain the volume data
Split
Volume DCO
plexes
Snapshot
DCO plex
Volume
data plexes
Snapshot
plex
The disk group cannot be split as the DCO

plexes cannot accompany their volumes.
One solution is to relocate the DCO plexes. In
this example, use an additional disk in the
disk group as an intermediary to swap the
misplaced DCO plexes. Alternatively, to
improve DRL performance and resilience,
allocate the DCO plexes to dedicated disks.
Volume
DCO plex
Volume
DCO plex
Snapshot
DCO plex
Volume
data plexes
Snapshot
plex
Split
The disk group can be split as the DCO

plexes can accompany their volumes.
However, you may not wish the data in
the portions of the disks marked ? to
be moved as well.
?
Volume
DCO plexes
Snapshot
DCO plex
Volume 1
data plexes
Volume 2
data plexes
Volume 1
DCO plexes
Snapshot
plex
?
Snapshot
DCO plex
The disk group cannot be

split as this would separate
the disks containing
Volume 2s data plexes.
Possible solutions are to
relocate the snapshot DCO
plex to the snapshot plex
disk, or to another suitable
disk that can be moved.
Moving objects between disk groups

To move a self-contained set of VxVM objects from an imported source disk group
to an imported target disk group, use the following command:
596

# vxdg [-o expand] [-o override|verify] move sourcedg targetdg \

object ...
The -o expand option ensures that the objects that are actually moved include all
other disks containing subdisks that are associated with the specified objects or
with objects that they contain.
The default behavior of vxdg when moving licensed disks in an EMC array is to
perform an EMC disk compatibility check for each disk involved in the move. If the
compatibility checks succeed, the move takes place. vxdg then checks again to
ensure that the configuration has not changed since it performed the compatibility
check. If the configuration has changed, vxdg attempts to perform the entire move
again.
Note: You should only use the -o override and -o verify options if you are using
an EMC array with a valid timefinder license. If you specify one of these options
and do not meet the array and license requirements, a warning message is displayed
and the operation is ignored.
The -o override option enables the move to take place without any EMC checking.
The -o verify option returns the access names of the disks that would be moved
but does not perform the move.
The following output from vxprint shows the contents of disk groups rootdg and
mydg.
The output includes two utility fields, TUTIL0 and PUTIL0. VxVM creates these fields
to manage objects and communications between different commands and Symantec
products. The TUTIL0 values are temporary; they are not maintained on reboot.
The PUTIL0 values are persistent; they are maintained on reboot.
# vxprint
Disk group: rootdg
TY NAME
ASSOC
dg rootdg
rootdg
dm rootdg02
sdb
dm rootdg03
sdc
dm rootdg04
csdd
dm rootdg06
sdf
KSTATE
-
LENGTH
17678493
17678493
17678493
17678493
PLOFFS
-
STATE
-
TUTIL0
-
PUTIL0
-
Disk group: mydg

TY NAME
ASSOC
dg mydg
mydg
dm mydg01
sda
KSTATE
-
LENGTH
17678493
PLOFFS
-
STATE
-
TUTIL0
-
PUTIL0
-
597

dm
dm
dm
v
pl
sd
pl
sd
mydg05
mydg07
mydg08
vol1
vol1-01
mydg01-01
vol1-02
mydg05-01
sde
sdg
sdh
fsgen
vol1
vol1-01
vol1
vol1-02
ENABLED
ENABLED
ENABLED
ENABLED
ENABLED
17678493
17678493
17678493
2048
3591
3591
3591
3591
0
0
ACTIVE
ACTIVE
ACTIVE
-
The following command moves the self-contained set of objects implied by specifying
disk mydg01 from disk group mydg to rootdg:
# vxdg -o expand move mydg rootdg mydg01
group move. If you have turned off the automatic recovery feature, volumes are
disabled after a move. Use the following commands to recover and restart the
volumes in the target disk group:
# vxrecover -g targetdg -m [volume ...]
# vxvol -g targetdg startall
The output from vxprint after the move shows that not only mydg01 but also volume
vol1 and mydg05 have moved to rootdg, leaving only mydg07 and mydg08 in disk
group mydg:
# vxprint
Disk group: rootdg
TY NAME
ASSOC
dg rootdg
rootdg
dm mydg01
sda
dm rootdg02
sdb
dm rootdg03
sdc
dm rootdg04
sdd
dm mydg05
sde
dm rootdg06
sdf
v vol1
fsgen
pl vol1-01
vol1
sd mydg01-01
vol1-01
pl vol1-02
vol1
sd mydg05-01
vol1-02
KSTATE
ENABLED
ENABLED
ENABLED
ENABLED
ENABLED
LENGTH
17678493
17678493
17678493
17678493
17678493
17678493
2048
3591
3591
3591
3591
PLOFFS
0
0
STATE
ACTIVE
ACTIVE
ACTIVE
-
TUTIL0
-
PUTIL0
-
Disk group: mydg

TY NAME
ASSOC
dg mydg
mydg
KSTATE
-
LENGTH
-
PLOFFS
-
STATE
-
TUTIL0
-
PUTIL0
-
598

dm mydg07
dm mydg08
sdg
sdh
17678493
17678493
The following commands would also achieve the same result:

# vxdg move mydg rootdg mydg01 mydg05
# vxdg move mydg rootdg vol1
Splitting disk groups

To remove a self-contained set of VxVM objects from an imported source disk group
to a new target disk group, use the following command:
# vxdg [-o expand] [-o override|verify] split sourcedg targetdg \
object ...

The following output from vxprint shows the contents of disk group rootdg.
The output includes two utility fields, TUTIL0 and PUTIL0.. VxVM creates these
fields to manage objects and communications between different commands and
Symantec products. The TUTIL0 values are temporary; they are not maintained on
reboot. The PUTIL0 values are persistent; they are maintained on reboot.
# vxprint
Disk group: rootdg
TY NAME
ASSOC
dg rootdg
rootdg
dm rootdg01
sda
dm rootdg02
sdb
dm rootdg03
sdc
dm rootdg04
sdd
dm rootdg05
sde
dm rootdg06
sdf
dm rootdg07
sdg
dm rootdg08
sdh
v vol1
fsgen
pl vol1-01
vol1
sd rootdg01-01 vol1-01
pl vol1-02
vol1
KSTATE
ENABLED
ENABLED
ENABLED
ENABLED
ENABLED
LENGTH
17678493
17678493
17678493
17678493
17678493
17678493
17678493
17678493
2048
3591
3591
3591
3591
PLOFFS
0
0
STATE
ACTIVE
ACTIVE
ACTIVE
-
TUTIL0
-
PUTIL0
-
The following command removes disks rootdg07 and rootdg08 from rootdg to
form a new disk group, mydg:
599

# vxdg -o expand split rootdg mydg rootdg07 rootdg08
group split. If you have turned off the automatic recovery feature, volumes are
disabled after a split. Use the following commands to recover and restart the volumes
in the target disk group:
The output from vxprint after the split shows the new disk group, mydg:
# vxprint
Disk group: rootdg
TY NAME
ASSOC
dg rootdg
rootdg
dm rootdg01
sda
dm rootdg02
sdb
dm rootdg03
sdc
dm rootdg04
sdd
dm rootdg05
sde
dm rootdg06
sdf
v vol1
fsgen
pl vol1-01
vol1
pl vol1-02
vol1
Disk group: mydg
TY NAME
ASSOC
dg mydg
mydg
dm rootdg07
sdg
dm rootdg08
sdh
KSTATE
ENABLED
ENABLED
ENABLED
ENABLED
ENABLED
LENGTH
17678493
17678493
17678493
17678493
17678493
17678493
2048
3591
3591
3591
3591
PLOFFS
0
0
STATE
ACTIVE
ACTIVE
ACTIVE
-
TUTIL0
-
PUTIL0
-
KSTATE
-
LENGTH
17678493
17678493
PLOFFS
-
STATE
-
TUTIL0
-
PUTIL0
-
Joining disk groups

To remove all VxVM objects from an imported source disk group to an imported
target disk group, use the following command:
# vxdg [-o override|verify] join sourcedg targetdg

Note: You cannot specify rootdg as the source disk group for a join operation.
600

The following output from vxprint shows the contents of the disk groups rootdg
and mydg.
The output includes two utility fields, TUTIL0 and PUTIL0.. VxVM creates these
fields to manage objects and communications between different commands and
Symantec products. The TUTIL0 values are temporary; they are not maintained on
reboot. The PUTIL0 values are persistent; they are maintained on reboot.
# vxprint
Disk group: rootdg
TY NAME
ASSOC
dg rootdg
rootdg
dm rootdg01
sda
dm rootdg02
sdb
dm rootdg03
sdc
dm rootdg04
sdd
dm rootdg07
sdg
dm rootdg08
sdh
KSTATE
-
LENGTH
17678493
17678493
17678493
17678493
17678493
17678493
PLOFFS
-
STATE
-
TUTIL0
-
PUTIL0
-
Disk group: mydg

TY NAME
ASSOC
dg mydg
mydg
dm mydg05
sde
dm mydg06
sdf
v vol1
fsgen
pl vol1-01
vol1
sd mydg01-01
vol1-01
pl vol1-02
vol1
sd mydg05-01
vol1-02
KSTATE
ENABLED
ENABLED
ENABLED
ENABLED
ENABLED
LENGTH
17678493
17678493
2048
3591
3591
3591
3591
PLOFFS
0
0
STATE
ACTIVE
ACTIVE
ACTIVE
-
TUTIL0
-
PUTIL0
-
The following command joins disk group mydg to rootdg:

# vxdg join mydg rootdg
group join. If you have turned off the automatic recovery feature, volumes are
disabled after a join. Use the following commands to recover and restart the volumes
in the target disk group:
The output from vxprint after the join shows that disk group mydg has been
removed:
601

# vxprint
Disk group: rootdg
TY NAME
ASSOC
dg rootdg
rootdg
KSTATE
-
LENGTH
-
PLOFFS
-
STATE
-
TUTIL0
-
PUTIL0
-
dm
dm
dm
dm
dm
dm
dm
dm
v
pl
sd
pl
sd
ENABLED
ENABLED
ENABLED
ENABLED
ENABLED
17678493
17678493
17678493
17678493
17678493
17678493
17678493
17678493
2048
3591
3591
3591
3591
0
0
ACTIVE
ACTIVE
ACTIVE
-
mydg01
rootdg02
rootdg03
rootdg04
mydg05
rootdg06
rootdg07
rootdg08
vol1
vol1-01
mydg01-01
vol1-02
mydg05-01
sda
sdb
sdc
sdd
sde
sdf
sdg
sdh
fsgen
vol1
vol1-01
vol1
vol1-02

The VxVM task monitor tracks the progress of system recovery by monitoring task
creation, maintenance, and completion. The task monitor lets you monitor task
progress and modify characteristics of tasks, such as pausing and recovery rate
(for example, to reduce the impact on system performance).
Note: VxVM supports this feature only for private disk groups, not for shared disk
groups in a CVM environment.
Specifying task tags

Every task is given a unique task identifier. This is a numeric identifier for the task
that can be specified to the vxtask utility to specifically identify a single task. Several
VxVM utilities also provide a -t option to specify an alphanumeric tag of up to 16
characters in length. This allows you to group several tasks by associating them
with the same tag.
The following utilities accept the -t option:
vxassist
vxevac
vxmirror
602

vxplex
vxrecover
vxrelayout
vxresize
vxsd
vxvol
For example, to execute a vxrecover command and track the resulting tasks as a
group with the task tag myrecovery, use the following command:
# vxrecover -g mydg -t myrecovery -b mydg05
To track the resulting tasks, use the following command:

# vxtask monitor myrecovery
Any tasks started by the utilities invoked by vxrecover also inherit its task ID and
task tag, establishing a parent-child task relationship.
For more information about the utilities that support task tagging, see their respective
manual pages.
Managing tasks with vxtask

You can use the vxtask command to administer operations on VxVM tasks.
Operations include listing tasks, modifying the task state (pausing, resuming,
aborting) and modifying the task's progress rate.
VxVM tasks represent long-term operations in progress on the system. Every task
gives information on the time the operation started, the size and progress of the
operation, and the state and rate of progress of the operation. You can change the
state of a task, giving coarse-grained control over the progress of the operation.
For those operations that support it, you can change the rate of progress of the
task, giving more fine-grained control over the task.
New tasks take time to be set up, and so may not be immediately available for use
after a command is invoked. Any script that operates on tasks may need to poll for
the existence of a new task.
See the vxtask(1M) manual page.
vxtask operations
The vxtask command supports the following operations:
603

abort
Stops the specified task. In most cases, the operations back out as if
an I/O error occurred, reversing what has been done so far to the largest
extent possible.
list
Displays a one-line summary for each task running on the system. The
-l option prints tasks in long format. The -h option prints tasks
hierarchically, with child tasks following the parent tasks. By default, all
tasks running on the system are printed. If you include a taskid
argument, the output is limited to those tasks whose taskid or task
tag match taskid. The remaining arguments filter tasks and limit which
ones are listed.
In this release, the vxtask list command supports SmartMove and
thin reclamation operation.
If you use SmartMove to resync or sync the volume, plex, or subdisk,

the vxtask list displays whether the operations is using
SmartMove or not.
In a LUN level reclamation, the vxtask list command provides
information on the amount of the reclaim performed on each LUN.
The init=zero on the thin volume may trigger the reclaim on the
thin volume and the progress is seen in the vxtask list
command.
monitor
Prints information continuously about a task or group of tasks as task

information changes. This lets you track task progress. Specifying -l
prints a long listing. By default, one-line listings are printed. In addition
to printing task information when a task state changes, output is also
generated when the task completes. When this occurs, the state of the
task is printed as EXITED.
pause
Pauses a running task, causing it to suspend operation.
resume
Causes a paused task to continue operation.
set
Changes a task's modifiable parameters. Currently, there is only one

modifiable parameter, slow[=iodelay] , which can be used to reduce
the impact that copy operations have on system performance. If you
specify slow, this introduces a delay between such operations with a
default value for iodelay of 250 milliseconds. The larger iodelay
value you specify, the slower the task progresses and the fewer system
resources that it consumes in a given time. (The vxplex, vxvol and
vxrecover commands also accept the slow attribute.)
Using the vxtask command

To list all tasks running on the system, use the following command:
604

# vxtask list
To print tasks hierarchically, with child tasks following the parent tasks, specify the
-h option, as follows:
# vxtask -h list
To trace all paused tasks in the disk group mydg, as well as any tasks with the tag
sysstart, use the following command:
# vxtask -g mydg -p -i sysstart list
To list all paused tasks, use the vxtask -p list command. To continue execution
(the task may be specified by its ID or by its tag), use vxtask resume :
# vxtask -p list
# vxtask resume 167
To monitor all tasks with the tag myoperation, use the following command:
# vxtask monitor myoperation
To cause all tasks tagged with recovall to exit, use the following command:
# vxtask abort recovall
This command causes VxVM to try to reverse the progress of the operation so far.
For example, aborting an Online Relayout results in VxVM returning the volume to
its original layout.
See Controlling the progress of a relayout on page 611.

You can use the vxnotify utility to display events relating to disk and configuration
changes that are managed by the vxconfigd configuration daemon. If vxnotify
is running on a system where the VxVM clustering feature is active, it displays
events that are related to changes in the cluster state of the system on which it is
running. The vxnotify utility displays the requested event types until you kill it,
until it has received a specified number of events, or until a specified period of time
has elapsed.
Examples of configuration events that can be detected include disabling and enabling
of controllers, paths and DMP nodes, RAID-5 volumes entering degraded mode,
detachment of disks, plexes and volumes, and nodes joining and leaving a cluster.
605

For example, the following vxnotify command displays information about all disk,
plex, and volume detachments as they occur:
# vxnotify -f
The following command provides information about cluster configuration changes,

including the import and deport of shared disk groups:
# vxnotify -s -i
See the vxnotify(1M) manual page.

You can use the vxassist relayout command to reconfigure the layout of a
volume without taking it offline. The general form of this command is as follows:
# vxassist [-b] [-g diskgroup] relayout volume [layout=layout] \
[relayout_options]
If you specify the -b option, relayout of the volume is a background task.

The following destination layout configurations are supported.
concat-mirror
Concatenated-mirror
concat
Concatenated
nomirror
Concatenated
nostripe
Concatenated
raid5
RAID-5 (not supported for shared disk groups)
span
Concatenated
stripe
Striped
See Permitted relayout transformations on page 607.

For example, the following command changes the concatenated volume vol02, in
disk group mydg, to a striped volume. By default, the striped volume has 2 columns
and a 64 KB striped unit size.:
# vxassist -g mydg relayout vol02 layout=stripe
Sometimes, you may need to perform a relayout on a plex rather than on a volume.
See Specifying a plex for relayout on page 610.
606

Permitted relayout transformations

Table 30-1 shows the supported relayout transformations for concatenated volumes.
Table 30-1
Supported relayout transformations for concatenated volumes
Relayout to
From concat
concat
No.
concat-mirror
No. Add a mirror, and then use vxassist convert instead.
mirror-concat
No. Add a mirror instead.
mirror-stripe
No. Use vxassist convert after relayout to the striped-mirror volume

instead.
raid5
Yes. The stripe width and number of columns may be defined.
stripe
stripe-mirror
Table 30-2 shows the supported relayout transformations for concatenated-mirror

volumes.
Table 30-2
Supported relayout transformations for concatenated-mirror

volumes
Relayout to
From concat-mirror
concat
No. Use vxassist convert, and then remove the unwanted mirrors
from the resulting mirrored-concatenated volume instead.
concat-mirror
No.
mirror-concat
No. Use vxassist convert instead.
mirror-stripe

instead.
raid5
Yes.
stripe
Yes. This relayout removes a mirror and adds striping. The stripe width
and number of columns may be defined.
stripe-mirror
Table 30-3 shows the supported relayout transformations for RAID-5 volumes.
607

Table 30-3
Supported relayout transformations for RAID-5 volumes
Relayout to
From RAID-5
concat
Yes.
concat-mirror
Yes.
mirror-concat
No. Use vxassist convert after relayout to the concatenated-mirror

volume instead.
mirror-stripe

instead.
raid5
Yes. The stripe width and number of columns may be changed.
stripe
Yes. The stripe width or number of columns must be changed.
stripe-mirror

Otherwise, use vxassist convert.
Table 30-4 shows the supported relayout transformations for mirror-concatenated

volumes.
Table 30-4
Supported relayout transformations for mirrored-concatenated

volumes
Relayout to
From mirror-concat
concat
No. Remove the unwanted mirrors instead.
concat-mirror
No. Use vxassist convert instead.
mirror-concat
No.
mirror-stripe

instead.
raid5
Yes. The stripe width and number of columns may be defined. Choose
a plex in the existing mirrored volume on which to perform the relayout.
The other plexes are removed at the end of the relayout operation.
stripe
Yes.
stripe-mirror
Yes.
Table 30-5 shows the supported relayout transformations for mirrored-stripe volumes.
608

Table 30-5
Supported relayout transformations for mirrored-stripe volumes
Relayout to
From mirror-stripe
concat
Yes.
concat-mirror
Yes.
mirror-concat

volume instead.
mirror-stripe

instead.
raid5
stripe
stripe-mirror

Otherwise, use vxassist convert.
Table 30-6 shows the supported relayout transformations for unmirrored stripe and
layered striped-mirror volumes.
Table 30-6
Supported relayout transformations for unmirrored stripe and

layered striped-mirror volumes
Relayout to
From stripe or stripe-mirror
concat
Yes.
concat-mirror
Yes.
mirror-concat

volume instead.
mirror-stripe

instead.
raid5
stripe
stripe-mirror
Specifying a non-default layout

You can specify one or more of the following relayout options to change the default
layout configuration:
609

ncol=number
Specifies the number of columns.
ncol=+number
Specifies the number of columns to add.
ncol=-number
Specifies the number of columns to remove.
stripeunit=size
Specifies the stripe width.
The following examples use vxassist to change the stripe width and number of
columns for a striped volume in the disk group dbasedg:
# vxassist -g dbasedg relayout vol03 stripeunit=64k ncol=6
# vxassist -g dbasedg relayout vol03 ncol=+2
# vxassist -g dbasedg relayout vol03 stripeunit=128k
The following example changes a concatenated volume to a RAID-5 volume with

four columns:
# vxassist -g dbasedg relayout vol04 layout=raid5 ncol=4
Specifying a plex for relayout

If you have enough disks and space in the disk group, you can change any layout
to RAID-5 . To convert a mirrored volume to RAID-5, you must specify which plex
is to be converted. When the conversion finishes, all other plexes are removed,
releasing their space for other purposes. If you convert a mirrored volume to a
layout other than RAID-5, the unconverted plexes are not removed. Specify the
plex to be converted by naming it in place of a volume as follows:
# vxassist [-g diskgroup] relayout plex [layout=layout] \
[relayout_options]
Tagging a relayout operation

To control the progress of a relayout operation, for example to pause or reverse it,
use the -t option to vxassist to specify a task tag for the operation. For example,
the following relayout is performed as a background task and has the tag myconv:
# vxassist -b -g dbasedg -t myconv relayout vol04 layout=raid5 \
ncol=4
See Viewing the status of a relayout on page 611.

See Controlling the progress of a relayout on page 611.
610

Viewing the status of a relayout

Online relayout operations take time to perform. You can use the vxrelayout
command to obtain information about the status of a relayout operation. For example,
# vxrelayout -g mydg status vol04
might display output similar to the following:

STRIPED, columns=5, stwidth=128--> STRIPED, columns=6,
stwidth=128
Relayout running, 68.58% completed.
In this example, the reconfiguration is in progress for a striped volume from 5 to 6

columns, and is over two-thirds complete.
If you specify a task tag to vxassist when you start the relayout, you can use this
tag with the vxtask command to monitor the progress of the relayout. For example,
to monitor the task that is tagged as myconv, enter the following:
# vxtask monitor myconv
Controlling the progress of a relayout

You can use the vxtask command to stop (pause) the relayout temporarily, or to
cancel it (abort). If you specify a task tag to vxassist when you start the relayout,
you can use this tag to specify the task to vxtask. For example, to pause the relayout
operation that is tagged as myconv, enter:
# vxtask pause myconv
To resume the operation, use the vxtask command as follows:

# vxtask resume myconv
For relayout operations that have not been stopped using the vxtask pause
command (for example, the vxtask abort command was used to stop the task,
the transformation process died, or there was an I/O failure), resume the relayout
by specifying the start keyword to vxrelayout, as follows:
# vxrelayout -g mydg -o bg start vol04
If you use the vxrelayout start command to restart a relayout that you previously
suspended using the vxtask pause command, a new untagged task is created to
611

complete the operation. You cannot then use the original task tag to control the
relayout.
The -o bg option restarts the relayout in the background. You can also specify the
slow and iosize option modifiers to control the speed of the relayout and the size
of each region that is copied. For example, the following command inserts a delay
of 1000 milliseconds (1 second) between copying each 10 MB region:
# vxrelayout -g mydg -o bg,slow=1000,iosize=10m start vol04
The default delay and region size values are 250 milliseconds and 1 MB respectively.
To reverse the direction of relayout operation that is stopped, specify the reverse
keyword to vxrelayout as follows:
# vxrelayout -g mydg -o bg reverse vol04
This undoes changes made to the volume so far, and returns it to its original layout.
If you cancel a relayout using vxtask abort, the direction of the conversion is also
reversed, and the volume is returned to its original configuration.
See Managing tasks with vxtask on page 603.
See the vxtask(1M) manual page.

You can add a mirror to a volume with the vxassist command, as follows:
# vxassist [-b] [-g diskgroup] mirror volume
Specifying the -b option makes synchronizing the new mirror a background task.
For example, to create a mirror of the volume voltest in the disk group, mydg, use
# vxassist -b -g mydg mirror voltest
You can also mirror a volume by creating a plex and then attaching it to a volume
using the following commands:
# vxmake [-g diskgroup] plex plex sd=subdisk ...
# vxplex [-g diskgroup] att volume plex
612

Mirroring all volumes

To mirror all volumes in a disk group to available disk space, use the following
command:
# /etc/vx/bin/vxmirror -g diskgroup -a
To configure VxVM to create mirrored volumes by default, use the following

command:
# vxmirror -d yes
If you make this change, you can still make unmirrored volumes by specifying
nmirror=1 as an attribute to the vxassist command. For example, to create an
unmirrored 20-gigabyte volume named nomirror in the disk group mydg, use the
following command:
# vxassist -g mydg make nomirror 20g nmirror=1
Mirroring volumes on a VxVM disk

Mirroring volumes creates one or more copies of your volumes on another disk. By
creating mirror copies of your volumes, you protect your volumes against loss of
data if a disk fails.
You can use this task on your root disk to make a second copy of the boot
information available on an alternate disk. This lets you boot your system even if
your root disk fails.
Note: This task only mirrors concatenated volumes. Volumes that are already
mirrored or that contain subdisks that reside on multiple disks are ignored
To mirror volumes on a disk
Make sure that the target disk has an equal or greater amount of space as the
source disk.
From the vxdiskadm main menu, select Mirror volumes on a disk .
At the prompt, enter the disk name of the disk that you wish to mirror:
At the prompt, enter the target disk name (this disk must be the same size or
larger than the originating disk):
Enter destination disk [<disk>,list,q,?] (default: any) mydg01
613

At the prompt, press Return to make the mirror:

The vxdiskadm program displays the status of the mirroring operation, as

follows:
VxVM vxmirror INFO V-5-2-22 Mirror volume voltest-bk00
.
.
.
VxVM INFO V-5-2-674 Mirroring of disk mydg02 is complete.
At the prompt, indicate whether you want to mirror volumes on another disk
Mirror volumes on another disk? [y,n,q,?] (default: n)
By default, the SmartMove utility is enabled for all volumes. Configuring the
SmartMove feature is only required if you want to change the default behavior, or
if you have modified the behavior previously.
SmartMove has three values where SmartMove can be applied or not. The three
values are:
Value
Meaning
none
Do not use SmartMove at all.
thinonly
Use SmartMove for thin aware LUNs only.
all
Use SmartMove for all types of LUNs.

This is the default value.
614

Removing a mirror
To configure the SmartMove value
To display the current and default SmartMove values, type the following
command:
# vxdefault list
KEYWORD
usefssmartmove
...
CURRENT-VALUE
all
DEFAULT-VALUE
all
To set the SmartMove value, type the following command:

# vxdefault set usefssmartmove value
where value is either none, thinonly, or all.
Removing a mirror
When you no longer need a mirror, you can remove it to free disk space.
Note: VxVM will not allow you to remove the last valid plex associated with a volume.
To remove a mirror from a volume, use the following command:
# vxassist [-g diskgroup] remove mirror volume
You can also use storage attributes to specify the storage to be removed. For
example, to remove a mirror on disk mydg01 from volume vol01, enter the following.
Note: The ! character is a special character in some shells. The following example
# vxassist -g mydg remove mirror vol01 \!mydg01

Alternatively, use the following command to dissociate and remove a mirror from
a volume:
# vxplex [-g diskgroup] -o rm dis mirror
For example, to dissociate and remove a mirror named vol01-02 from the disk
group mydg, use the following command:
# vxplex -g mydg -o rm dis vol01-02
615

This command removes the mirror vol01-02 and all associated subdisks. This is
equivalent to entering the following commands separately:
# vxplex -g mydg dis vol01-02
# vxedit -g mydg -r rm vol01-02

Volume tags implement the SmartTier feature. You can also apply tags to vsets
using the same vxvm command syntax as shown below.
The following forms of the vxassist command let you do the following:
Set a named tag and optional tag value on a volume.
Replace a tag.
Remove a tag from a volume.
# vxassist [-g diskgroup] settag volume|vset tagname[=tagvalue]

# vxassist [-g diskgroup] replacetag volume|vset oldtag newtag
# vxassist [-g diskgroup] removetag volume|vset tagname
To list the tags that are associated with a volume, use the following command:
# vxassist [-g diskgroup] listtag [volume|vset]
If you do not specify a volume name, all the volumes and vsets in the disk group
are displayed. The acronym vt in the TY field indicates a vset.
The following is a sample listtag command:
# vxassist -g dg1 listtag vol
To list the volumes that have a specified tag name, use the following command:
# vxassist [-g diskgroup] list tag=tagname volume
Tag names and tag values are case-sensitive character strings of up to 256
characters. Tag names can consist of the following ASCII characters:
Letters (A through Z and a through z)
Numbers (0 through 9)
Dashes (-)
Underscores (_)
Periods (.)
616

A tag name must start with either a letter or an underscore. A tag name must not
be the same as the name of a disk in the disk group.
The tag names site, udid, and vdid are reserved. Do not use them. To avoid
possible clashes with future product features, do not start tag names with any of
the following strings: asl, be, nbu, sf, symc, or vx.
Tag values can consist of any ASCII character that has a decimal value from 32
through 127. If a tag value includes spaces, quote the specification to protect it from
the shell, as follows:
# vxassist -g mydg settag myvol "dbvol=table space 1"
The list operation understands dotted tag hierarchies. For example, the listing for
tag=a.b includes all volumes that have tag names starting with a.b.

This section describes managing disk groups.
Disk group versions

All disk groups have a version number associated with them. Each major Veritas
Volume Manager (VxVM) release introduces a disk group version. To support the
new features in the release, the disk group must be the latest disk group version.
By default, VxVM creates disk groups with the latest disk group version. For example,
Veritas Volume Manager 6.0 creates disk groups with version 170.
Each VxVM release supports a specific set of disk group versions. VxVM can import
and perform operations on a disk group of any supported version. However, the
operations are limited by what features and operations the disk group version
supports. If you import a disk group from a previous version, the latest features may
not be available. If you attempt to use a feature from a newer version of VxVM, you
receive an error message similar to this:
VxVM vxedit ERROR V-5-1-2829 Disk group version doesn't support
feature
You must explicitly upgrade the disk group to the appropriate disk group version to
use the feature.
See Upgrading the disk group version on page 622.
Table 30-7 summarizes the Veritas Volume Manager releases that introduce and
support specific disk group versions. It also summarizes the features that are
supported by each disk group version.
617

Table 30-7
Disk group version assignments
VxVM release
Introduces disk
group version
New features
supported
6.1
190
SmartIO caching
Flexible storage
sharing
TRIM support for

Solid State
Devices (SSDs)
CVM availability
enhancements
6.0.1
180
6.0
170
5.1SP1
160
20, 30, 40, 50, 60, 70,

80, 90, 110, 120, 130,
140, 150, 160, 170
VVR compression 20, 30, 40, 50, 60, 70,

VVR Secondary 80, 90, 110, 120, 130,
140, 150, 160
logging
CVM availability
enhancements
DCO version 30
Recovery for
synchronization
tasks.
Automated bunker 20, 30, 40, 50, 60, 70,

replay as part of 80, 90, 110, 120, 130,
GCO failover
140, 150, 160
Ability to elect
primary during
GCO takeover
CVM support for
more than 32
nodes and up to
64 nodes
CDS layout
support for large
luns (> 1 TB)
vxrootadm
enhancements
150
20, 30, 40, 50, 60, 70,

80, 90, 110, 120, 130,
140, 150, 160, 170,
180
5.1
Supports disk
group versions *
SSD device support, 20, 30, 40, 50, 60, 70,

migration of ISP dg
80, 90, 110, 120, 130,
140, 150
618

Table 30-7
Disk group version assignments (continued)
VxVM release
Introduces disk
group version
New features
supported
Supports disk
group versions *
5.0
140
Data migration,
Remote Mirror,
coordinator disk
groups (used by
VCS), linked
volumes, snapshot
LUN import.
20, 30, 40, 50, 60, 70,

80, 90, 110, 120, 130,
140
5.0
130
VVR
Enhancements
20, 30, 40, 50, 60, 70,

80, 90, 110, 120, 130
4.1
120
Automatic
Cluster-wide
Failback for A/P
arrays
Persistent DMP
Policies
Shared Disk
Group Failure
Policy
20, 30, 40, 50, 60, 70,

80, 90, 110, 120
619

Table 30-7
VxVM release
Introduces disk
group version
New features
supported
4.0
110
3.2, 3.5
90
Supports disk
group versions *
Cross-platform
20, 30, 40, 50, 60, 70,
Data Sharing
80, 90, 110
(CDS)
Device Discovery
Layer (DDL) 2.0
Disk Group
Configuration
Backup and
Restore
Elimination of
rootdg as a
Special Disk
Group
Full-Sized and
Space-Optimized
Instant Snapshots
Intelligent Storage
Provisioning (ISP)
Serial Split Brain
Detection
Volume Sets
(Multiple Device
Support for VxFS)
Cluster Support
20, 30, 40, 50, 60, 70,
for Oracle
80, 90
Resilvering
Disk Group Move,
Split and Join
Device Discovery
Layer (DDL) 1.0
Layered Volume
Support in
Clusters
Ordered
Allocation
OS Independent
Naming Support
Persistent
FastResync
620

Table 30-7
VxVM release
Introduces disk
group version
New features
supported
3.1.1
80
VVR
Enhancements
20, 30, 40, 50, 60, 70,

80
3.1
70
20, 30, 40, 50, 60, 70
Non-Persistent
FastResync
Sequential DRL
Unrelocate
VVR
Enhancements
Online Relayout
Safe RAID-5
Subdisk Moves
3.0
60
Supports disk
group versions *
20, 30, 40, 60
2.5
50
SRVM (now
20, 30, 40, 50
known as Veritas
Volume Replicator
or VVR)
2.3
40
Hot-Relocation
20, 30, 40
2.2
30
VxSmartSync
Recovery
Accelerator
20, 30
2.0
20
Dirty Region
20
Logging (DRL)
Disk Group
Configuration
Copy Limiting
Mirrored Volumes
Logging
New-Style Stripes
RAID-5 Volumes
Recovery
Checkpointing
1.3
15
15
1.2
10
10
621

* To support new features, the disk group must be at least the disk group version
of the release when the feature was introduced.
If you need to import a disk group on a system running an older version of Veritas
Volume Manager, you can create a disk group with an earlier disk group version.
See Creating a disk group with an earlier disk group version on page 623.
Upgrading the disk group version

All Veritas Volume Manager disk groups have an associated version number. Each
VxVM release supports a specific set of disk group versions and can import and
perform tasks on disk groups with those versions. Some new features and tasks
work only on disk groups with the current disk group version.
When you upgrade, VxVM does not automatically upgrade the versions of existing
disk groups. If the disk group is a supported version, the disk group can be used
as is, as long as you do not attempt to use the features of the current version.
Until the disk group is upgraded, it may still be deported back to the release from
which it was imported.
To use the features in the upgraded release, you must explicitly upgrade the existing
disk groups. There is no "downgrade" facility. After you upgrade a disk group, the
disk group is incompatible with earlier releases of VxVM that do not support the
new version. For disk groups that are shared among multiple servers for failover
or for off-host processing, verify that the VxVM release on all potential hosts that
may use the disk group supports the disk group version to which you are upgrading.
After upgrading to Storage Foundation 6.1, you must upgrade any existing disk
groups that are organized by ISP. Without the version upgrade, configuration query
operations continue to work fine. However, configuration change operations will
not function correctly.
To list the version of a disk group, use this command:
# vxdg list dgname
You can also determine the disk group version by using the vxprint command
with the -l format option.
To upgrade a disk group to the highest version supported by the release of VxVM
that is currently running, use this command:
# vxdg upgrade dgname
622

Creating a disk group with an earlier disk group version

You may sometimes need to create a disk group that can be imported on a system
running an older version of Veritas Volume Manager. You must specify the disk
group version when you create the disk group, since you cannot downgrade a disk
group version.
For example, the default disk group version for a disk group created on a system
running Veritas Volume Manager 6.0 is 170. Such a disk group cannot be imported
on a system running Veritas Volume Manager 4.1, as that release only supports
up to version 120. Therefore, to create a disk group on a system running Veritas
Volume Manager 6.0 that can be imported by a system running Veritas Volume
Manager 4.1, the disk group must be created with a version of 120 or less.
To create a disk group with a previous version, specify the -T version option to
the vxdg init command.
Displaying disk group information

To display information on existing disk groups, enter the following command:
# vxdg list
NAME
rootdg
newdg
STATE
enabled
enabled
ID
730344554.1025.tweety
731118794.1213.tweety
To display more detailed information on a specific disk group, use the following
command:
# vxdg list diskgroup
When you apply this command to a disk group named mydg, the output is similar
to the following:
# vxdg list mydg
Group: mydg
dgid: 962910960.1025.bass
import-id: 0.1
flags:
version: 160
local-activation: read-write
alignment: 512 (bytes)
ssb: on
detach-policy: local
copies: nconfig=default nlog=default
623

config: seqno=0.1183 permlen=3448 free=3428 templen=12 loglen=522

config disk sda copy 1 len=3448 state=clean online
config disk sdb copy 1 len=3448 state=clean online
log disk sdc copy 1 len=522
log disk sdd copy 1 len=522
To verify the disk group ID and name that is associated with a specific disk (for
example, to import the disk group), use the following command:
# vxdisk -s list devicename
This command provides output that includes the following information for the
specified disk. For example, output for disk sdc as follows:
Disk: sdc
type:
simple
flags: online ready private autoconfig autoimport imported
diskid: 963504891.1070.bass
dgname: newdg
dgid:
963504895.1075.bass
hostid: bass
info:
privoffset=128
Displaying free space in a disk group

Before you add volumes and file systems to your system, make sure that you have
enough free disk space to meet your needs.
To display free space in the system, use the following command:
# vxdg free
The following is example output:

GROUP
mydg
mydg
newdg
newdg
oradg
DISK
mydg01
mydg02
znewdg01
newdg02
oradg01
DEVICE
sda
sdb
sdc
sdd
sde
TAG
sda
sdb
sdc
sdd
sde
OFFSET
0
0
0
0
0
LENGTH
4444228
4443310
4443310
4443310
4443310
FLAGS
-
To display free space for a disk group, use the following command:
# vxdg -g diskgroup free
where -g diskgroup optionally specifies a disk group.
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For example, to display the free space in the disk group, mydg, use the following
command:
# vxdg -g mydg free
The following example output shows the amount of free space in sectors:
DISK
DEVICE
mydg01 sda
mydg02 sdb
TAG
sda
sdb
OFFSET
0
0
LENGTH
4444228
4443310
FLAGS
-
Creating a disk group

You must associate a disk group with at least one disk. You can create a new disk
group when you select Add or initialize one or more disks from the main
menu of the vxdiskadm command to add disks to VxVM control. The disks to be
added to a disk group must not belong to an existing disk group. A disk group name
cannot include a period (.) character.
You can create a shared disk group.
You can also use the vxdiskadd command to create a new disk group. The
command dialog is similar to that described for the vxdiskadm command.
In the following example, sdd is the device name of a disk that is not currently
assigned to a disk group.
# vxdiskadd sdd

You can also create disk groups using the following vxdg init command:
# vxdg init diskgroup [cds=on|off] diskname=devicename
For example, to create a disk group named mktdg on device sdc, enter the following:
# vxdg init mktdg mktdg01=sdc
The disk that is specified by the device name, sdc, must have been previously
initialized with vxdiskadd or vxdiskadm. The disk must not currently belong to a
disk group.
You can use the cds attribute with the vxdg init command to specify whether a
new disk group is compatible with the Cross-platform Data Sharing (CDS) feature.
Newly created disk groups are compatible with CDS by default (equivalent to
specifying cds=on). If you want to change this behavior, edit the file
625

/etc/default/vxdg and set the attribute-value pair cds=off in this file before
creating a new disk group.

You can also use the following command to set this attribute for a disk group:
# vxdg -g diskgroup set cds=on|off
Removing a disk from a disk group

Before you can remove the last disk from a disk group, you must disable the disk
group.
See Disabling a disk group on page 653.
As an alternative to disabling the disk group, you can destroy it.
See Destroying a disk group on page 653.
If a disk contains no subdisks, you can remove it from its disk group with the following
command:
# vxdg [-g diskgroup ] rmdisk diskname
For example, to remove mydg02 from the disk group mydg, enter the following:
# vxdg -g mydg rmdisk mydg02
If the disk has subdisks on it when you try to remove it, the following error message
is displayed:
VxVM vxdg ERROR V-5-1-552 Disk diskname is used by one or more
subdisks
Use -k to remove device assignment.
Using the -k option lets you remove the disk even if it has subdisks.
Warning: Use of the -k option to vxdg can result in data loss.
After you remove the disk from its disk group, you can (optionally) remove it from
VxVM control completely. Enter the following:
# vxdiskunsetup devicename
For example, to remove the disk sdc from VxVM control, enter the following:
# vxdiskunsetup sdc
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You can remove a disk on which some subdisks of volumes are defined. For
example, you can consolidate all the volumes onto one disk. If you use vxdiskadm
to remove a disk, you can choose to move volumes off that disk. To do this, run
vxdiskadm and select Remove a disk from the main menu.
If the disk is used by some volumes, this message is displayed:
VxVM ERROR V-5-2-369 The following volumes currently use part of
disk mydg02:
home usrvol
Volumes must be moved from mydg02 before it can be removed.
Move volumes to other disks? [y,n,q,?] (default: n)
If you choose y, all volumes are moved off the disk, if possible. Some volumes may
not be movable. The most common reasons why a volume may not be movable
are as follows:
There is not enough space on the remaining disks.
Plexes or striped subdisks cannot be allocated on different disks from existing

plexes or striped subdisks in the volume.
If vxdiskadm cannot move some volumes, you may need to remove some plexes
from some disks to free more space before proceeding with the disk removal
operation.
Deporting a disk group

Deporting a disk group disables access to a disk group that is enabled (imported)
by the system. Deport a disk group if you intend to move the disks in a disk group
to another system.
To deport a disk group
Stop all activity by applications to volumes that are configured in the disk group
that is to be deported. Unmount file systems and shut down databases that
are configured on the volumes.
If the disk group contains volumes that are in use (for example, by mounted
file systems or databases), deportation fails.
To stop the volumes in the disk group, use the following command
# vxvol -g diskgroup stopall
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From the vxdiskadm main menu, select Remove access to (deport) a disk
group .
At prompt, enter the name of the disk group to be deported. In the following
example it is newdg):
Enter name of disk group [<group>,list,q,?] (default: list)
newdg
At the following prompt, enter y if you intend to remove the disks in this disk
group:
Disable (offline) the indicated disks? [y,n,q,?]
(default: n) y
At the following prompt, press Return to continue with the operation:

After the disk group is deported, the vxdiskadm utility displays the following
message:
VxVM INFO V-5-2-269 Removal of disk group newdg was
successful.
At the following prompt, indicate whether you want to disable another disk
group (y) or return to the vxdiskadm main menu (n):
Disable another disk group? [y,n,q,?] (default: n)
You can use the following vxdg command to deport a disk group:
# vxdg deport diskgroup
Importing a disk group

Importing a disk group enables access by the system to a disk group. To move a
disk group from one system to another, first disable (deport) the disk group on the
original system, and then move the disk between systems and enable (import) the
disk group.
By default, VxVM recovers and starts any disabled volumes in the disk group when
you import the disk group. To prevent VxVM from recovering the disabled volumes,
turn off the automatic recovery feature. For example, after importing the disk group,
you may want to do some maintenance before starting the volumes.
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To import a disk group
To ensure that the disks in the deported disk group are online, use the following
command:
# vxdisk -s list
From the vxdiskadm main menu, select Enable access to (import) a disk
group.
At the following prompt, enter the name of the disk group to import (in this
example, newdg):
Select disk group to import [<group>,list,q,?] (default: list)
newdg
When the import finishes, the vxdiskadm utility displays the following success
message:
VxVM INFO V-5-2-374 The import of newdg was successful.
At the following prompt, indicate whether you want to import another disk group
Select another disk group? [y,n,q,?] (default: n)
You can also use the following vxdg command to import a disk group:
# vxdg import diskgroup
You can also import the disk group as a shared disk group.
Setting the automatic recovery of volumes

By default, VxVM recovers and starts any disabled volumes in the disk group when
you import the disk group. To prevent VxVM from recovering the disabled volumes,
turn off the automatic volume recovery. For example, after importing the disk group,
you may want to do some maintenance before starting the volumes.
629

To turn off the automatic volume recovery feature
To turn off automatic volume recovery for the entire system, use the following
command.
# vxtune autostartvolumes off
OR
To turn off automatic volume recovery for a specific disk group import operation,
use the noautostart option.
# vxdg -o noautostart import diskgroup
Handling of minor number conflicts

The volume device minor numbers in a disk group to be imported may conflict with
existing volume devices. In releases of VxVM before release 5.1, the conflicts
resulted in failures. Either the disk group import operation failed, or the slave node
failed to join for a shared disk group. When this situation happened, you had to run
the vxdg reminor command manually to resolve the minor conflicts. Starting in
release 5.1, VxVM can automatically resolve minor number conflicts.
If a minor conflict exists when a disk group is imported, VxVM automatically assigns
a new base minor to the disk group, and reminors the volumes in the disk group,
based on the new base minor. You do not need to run the vxdg reminor command
to resolve the minor conflicts.
To avoid any conflicts between shared and private disk groups, the minor numbers
are divided into shared and private pools. VxVM allocates minor numbers of shared
disk groups only from the shared pool, and VxVM allocates minor numbers of private
disk groups only from the private pool. If you import a private disk group as a shared
disk group or vice versa, the device minor numbers are re-allocated from the correct
pool. The disk group is dynamically reminored.
By default, private minor numbers range from 0-32999, and shared minor numbers
start from 33000. You can change the division if required. For example, you can
set the range for shared minor numbers to start from a lower number. This range
provides more minor numbers for shared disk groups and fewer minor numbers for
private disk groups.
Normally the minor numbers in private and shared pools are sufficient, so there is
no need to make changes to the division.
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Note: To make the new division take effect, you must run vxdctl enable or restart
vxconfigd after the tunable is changed in the defaults file. The division on all the
cluster nodes must be exactly the same, to prevent node failures for node join,
volume creation, or disk group import operations.
To change the division between shared and private minor numbers
Add the tunable sharedminorstart to the defaults file /etc/default/vxsf .

For example, to change the shared minor numbers so that the range starts
from 20000, set the following line in the /etc/default/vxsf file.
sharedminorstart=20000
You cannot set the shared minor numbers to start at less than 1000. If
sharedminorstart is set to values between 0 to 999, the division of private
minor numbers and shared disk group minor numbers is set to 1000. The value
of 0 disables dynamic renumbering.
Run the following command:

# vxdctl enable
In certain scenarios, you may need to disable the division of between shared minor
numbers and private minor numbers. For example, to prevent the device minor
numbers from being changed when you upgrade from a previous release. In this
case, disable the dynamic reminoring before you install the new VxVM rpm.
To disable the division between shared and private minor numbers
Set the tunable sharedminorstart in the defaults file /etc/default/vxsf

to 0 (zero). Set the following line in the /etc/default/vxsf file.
sharedminorstart=0
Run the following command:

# vxdctl enable
Moving disk groups between systems

An important feature of disk groups is that they can be moved between systems.
If all disks in a disk group are moved from one system to another, then the disk
group can be used by the second system. You do not have to re-specify the
configuration.
631

To move a disk group between systems
Confirm that all disks in the diskgroup are visible on the target system. This
may require masking and zoning changes.
On the source system, stop all volumes in the disk group, then deport (disable
local access to) the disk group with the following command:
Move all the disks to the target system and perform the steps necessary
(system-dependent) for the target system and VxVM to recognize the new
disks.
This can require a reboot, in which case the vxconfigd daemon is restarted
and recognizes the new disks. If you do not reboot, use the command vxdctl
enable to restart the vxconfigd program so VxVM also recognizes the disks.
Import (enable local access to) the disk group on the target system with this
command:
# vxdg import diskgroup
Warning: All disks in the disk group must be moved to the other system. If they
are not moved, the import fails.
By default, VxVM enables and starts any disabled volumes after the disk group
is imported.
If the automatic volume recovery feature is turned off, start all volumes with
# vxrecover -g diskgroup -sb
You can also move disks from a system that has crashed. In this case, you
cannot deport the disk group from the source system. When a disk group is
created or imported on a system, that system writes a lock on all disks in the
disk group.
Warning: The purpose of the lock is to ensure that SAN-accessed disks are
not used by both systems at the same time. If two systems try to access the
same disks at the same time, this must be managed using software such as
the clustering functionality of VxVM. Otherwise, data and configuration
information stored on the disk may be corrupted, and may become unusable.
632

Handling errors when importing disks

When you move disks from a system that has crashed or that failed to detect the
group before the disk was moved, the locks stored on the disks remain and must
be cleared. The system returns the following error message:
VxVM vxdg ERROR V-5-1-587 disk group groupname: import failed:
Disk is in use by another host
The next message indicates that the disk group does not contains any valid disks
(not that it does not contains any disks):
VxVM vxdg ERROR V-5-1-587 Disk group groupname: import failed:
No valid disk found containing disk group
The disks may be considered invalid due to a mismatch between the host ID in
their configuration copies and that stored in the /etc/vx/volboot file.
To clear locks on a specific set of devices, use the following command:
# vxdisk clearimport devicename ...
To clear the locks during import, use the following command:

# vxdg -C import diskgroup
Warning: Be careful when using the vxdisk clearimport or vxdg -C import

command on systems that see the same disks via a SAN. Clearing the locks allows
those disks to be accessed at the same time from multiple hosts and can result in
corrupted data.
A disk group can be imported successfully if all the disks are accessible that were
visible when the disk group was last imported successfully. However, sometimes
you may need to specify the -f option to forcibly import a disk group if some disks
are not available. If the import operation fails, an error message is displayed.
The following error message indicates a fatal error that requires hardware repair
or the creation of a new disk group, and recovery of the disk group configuration
and data:
Disk group has no valid configuration copies
The following error message indicates a recoverable error.

Disk for disk group not found
633

If some of the disks in the disk group have failed, you can force the disk group to
be imported by specifying the -f option to the vxdg import command:
# vxdg -f import diskgroup
Warning: Be careful when using the -f option. It can cause the same disk group to
be imported twice from different sets of disks. This can cause the disk group
configuration to become inconsistent.
See Handling conflicting configuration copies on page 646.
As using the -f option to force the import of an incomplete disk group counts as a
successful import, an incomplete disk group may be imported subsequently without
this option being specified. This may not be what you expect.
You can also import the disk group as a shared disk group.
These operations can also be performed using the vxdiskadm utility. To deport a
disk group using vxdiskadm, select Remove access to (deport) a disk group
from the main menu. To import a disk group, select Enable access to (import)
a disk group. The vxdiskadm import operation checks for host import locks and
prompts to see if you want to clear any that are found. It also starts volumes in the
disk group.
Reserving minor numbers for disk groups

A device minor number uniquely identifies some characteristic of a device to the
device driver that controls that device. It is often used to identify some characteristic
mode of an individual device, or to identify separate devices that are all under the
control of a single controller. VxVM assigns unique device minor numbers to each
object (volume, plex, subdisk, disk, or disk group) that it controls.
When you move a disk group between systems, it is possible for the minor numbers
that it used on its previous system to coincide with those of objects known to VxVM
on the new system. To get around this potential problem, you can allocate separate
ranges of minor numbers for each disk group. VxVM uses the specified range of
minor numbers when it creates volume objects from the disks in the disk group.
This guarantees that each volume has the same minor number across reboots or
reconfigurations. Disk groups may then be moved between machines without
causing device number collisions.
VxVM chooses minor device numbers for objects created from this disk group
starting at the base minor number base_minor. Minor numbers can range from this
value up to 65,535 on 2.6 and later kernels. Try to leave a reasonable number of
634

unallocated minor numbers near the top of this range to allow for temporary device
number remapping in the event that a device minor number collision may still occur.
VxVM reserves the range of minor numbers from 0 to 999 for use with volumes in
the boot disk group. For example, the rootvol volume is always assigned minor
number 0.
If you do not specify the base of the minor number range for a disk group, VxVM
chooses one at random. The number chosen is at least 1000, is a multiple of 1000,
and yields a usable range of 1000 device numbers. The chosen number also does
not overlap within a range of 1000 of any currently imported disk groups, and it
does not overlap any currently allocated volume device numbers.
Note: The default policy ensures that a small number of disk groups can be merged
successfully between a set of machines. However, where disk groups are merged
automatically using failover mechanisms, select ranges that avoid overlap.
To view the base minor number for an existing disk group, use the vxprint
command as shown in the following examples for the disk group, mydg:
# vxprint -l mydg | grep minors
minors: >=45000
# vxprint -g mydg -m | egrep base_minor
base_minor=45000
To set a base volume device minor number for a disk group that is being created,
# vxdg init diskgroup minor=base_minor disk_access_name ...
For example, the following command creates the disk group, newdg, that includes
the specified disks, and has a base minor number of 30000:
# vxdg init newdg minor=30000 sdc sdd
If a disk group already exists, you can use the vxdg reminor command to change
its base minor number:
# vxdg -g diskgroup reminor new_base_minor
For example, the following command changes the base minor number to 30000 for
the disk group, mydg:
# vxdg -g mydg reminor 30000
635

If a volume is open, its old device number remains in effect until the system is
rebooted or until the disk group is deported and re-imported. If you close the open
volume, you can run vxdg reminor again to allow the renumbering to take effect
without rebooting or re-importing.
An example of where it is necessary to change the base minor number is for a
cluster-shareable disk group. The volumes in a shared disk group must have the
same minor number on all the nodes. If there is a conflict between the minor numbers
when a node attempts to join the cluster, the join fails. You can use the reminor
operation on the nodes that are in the cluster to resolve the conflict. In a cluster
where more than one node is joined, use a base minor number which does not
conflict on any node.
See Handling of minor number conflicts on page 630.
Compatibility of disk groups between platforms

For disk groups that support the Cross-platform Data Sharing (CDS) feature, the
upper limit on the minor number range is restricted on AIX, HP-UX, Linux (with a
2.6 or later kernel) and Solaris to 65,535 to ensure portability between these
operating systems.
On a Linux platform with a pre-2.6 kernel, the number of minor numbers per major
number is limited to 256 with a base of 0. This has the effect of limiting the number
of volumes and disks that can be supported system-wide to a smaller value than
is allowed on other operating system platforms. The number of disks that are
supported by a pre-2.6 Linux kernel is typically limited to a few hundred. With the
extended major numbering scheme that was implemented in VxVM 4.0 on Linux,
a maximum of 4079 volumes could be configured, provided that a contiguous block
of 15 extended major numbers was available.
VxVM 4.1 and later releases run on a 2.6 version Linux kernel, which increases the
number of minor devices that are configurable from 256 to 65,536 per major device
number. This allows a large number of volumes and disk devices to be configured
on a system. The theoretical limit on the number of DMP and volume devices that
can be configured on such a system are 65,536 and 1,048,576 respectively.
However, in practice, the number of VxVM devices that can be configured in a
single disk group is limited by the size of the private region.
When a CDS-compatible disk group is imported on a Linux system with a pre-2.6
kernel, VxVM attempts to reassign the minor numbers of the volumes, and fails if
this is not possible.
636

To help ensure that a CDS-compatible disk group is portable between operating

systems, including Linux with a pre-2.6 kernel, use the following command to set
the maxdev attribute on the disk group:
# vxdg -g diskgroup set maxdev=4079
Note: Such a disk group may still not be importable by VxVM 4.0 on Linux with a
pre-2.6 kernel if it would increase the number of minor numbers on the system that
are assigned to volumes to more than 4079, or if the number of available extended
major numbers is smaller than 15.
You can use the following command to discover the maximum number of volumes
that are supported by VxVM on a Linux host:
# cat /proc/sys/vxvm/vxio/vol_max_volumes
4079
Importing a disk group containing hardware cloned disks

When you import a disk group, VxVM tries to ensure that the set of disks is consistent
and does not contain duplicate disks. By default, VxVM does not import disks which
have the udid_mismatch flag or the clone_disk flag. If the disk group contains
both clone and non-clone disks, the default is to import the disk group with only the
original (non-cloned) disks. VxVM does not support importing a mix of cloned and
non-cloned disks in the same disk group.
See How VxVM handles hardware clones or snapshots on page 93.
If you want to import the cloned disks (disk copies), you can do one of the following:
Update the UDID and clear the clone disk flag.

If you want to use the clone disk as a standard data disk, you can update the
UDID for the disk and clear the clone_disk flag. Use this option if the disk is
not really a clone or if you want to use the entire set of clone disks on a separate
host and no longer care to maintain the distinction between clone disks and
original disks.
See Writing a new UDID to a disk on page 638.
Import the disk group with the cloned disks.

Import only the cloned disks, and do not import the original standard disks.
Specify the useclonedev option. By default, the clone_disk flag remains on
the disks, so you can continue to distinguish between the original disks and the
copies.
637

See Importing the existing disk group with only the cloned disks on page 639.
Import the cloned disks as a new disk group.

Import only the cloned disks into a new disk group. VxVM no longer recognized
the disks as copies, so the clone_disk flag is removed. The disk group becomes
a standard disk group with the copies of the disks. This option only applies if a
single consistent set of clone disks exists in the disk group. If more than one
disk has the same UDID, VxVM prevents the disk group from being imported.
For example, you cannot use the option if two different point-in-time snapshots
were created, because the disk group has two copies of each disk.
See Importing the cloned disks as a new standard disk group on page 640.
Import a consistent set of cloned disks with tagging

If there are multiple copies of the same disks in a source disk group, because
of multiple hardware snapshots, you can use VxVM disk tagging to identify a
consistent set of cloned disks. Then you can import the tagged disks.
See Importing a set of cloned disks with tags on page 641.
Considerations when using EMC CLARiiON SNAPSHOT LUNs

If you need to import the Snapshot LUN of a primary LUN to the same host as the
original LUN, be aware of the following limitation.
If you are using Enclosure-based naming (EBN) with the Array Volume id (AVID)
enabled, turn off name persistence during device discovery before importing the
snapshot LUN to the original host.
To turn off name persistence, use the following command:
# vxddladm set namingscheme=ebn persistence=no use_avid=yes
After DDL recognizes the LUN, turn on name persistence using the following
command:
# vxddladm set namingscheme=ebn persistence=yes use_avid=yes
Writing a new UDID to a disk

If VxVM has marked a disk with the udid_mismatch flag or the clone_disk flag,
you can update the stored UDID for the disk. This procedure uses the current value
of the UDID that is stored in the Device Discovery Layer (DDL) database to correct
the value in the private region. Use this option any time you do not need to maintain
the distinction between clone disks and the original disks. For example, if the disk
is not really a clone or if you are using the entire set of clone disks on a separate
host.
638

To update the UDID for a disk
Use the following command to update the unique disk identifier (UDID) for one
or more disks.
# vxdisk [-cf] [-g diskgroup ] updateudid disk ...
For example, the following command updates the UDIDs for the disks sdg and
sdh:
# vxdisk updateudid sdg sdh
The -f option must be specified if VxVM has not set the udid_mismatch flag
for a disk.
If VxVM has set the udid_mismatch flag on a disk that is not a clone, specify
the -c option to remove the udid_mismatch flag and the clone flag.
Importing the existing disk group with only the cloned disks
If the standard (non-clone) disks in a disk group are not imported, you can import
the existing disk group with only the cloned disks. By default, the clone_disk flag
is set on the disks so that you can continue to distinguish between the original disks
and the cloned disks.
This procedure is useful for temporary scenarios. For example, if you want to import
only the clone disks to verify the point-in-time copy. After you have verified the clone
disks, you can deport the clone disks and import the standard disks again.
Be sure to import a consistent set of cloned disks, which represent a single point
of time copy of the original disks. Each of the disks must have either the
udid_mismatch flag or the clone_disk flag or both. No two of the disks should
have the same UDID. That is, there must not be two copies of the same original
disk.
You must use disk tags if multiple copies of disks in a disk group are present on
the system.
VxVM does not support a disk group with both clone and non-clone disks. If you
want to import both clone disks and standard disks simultaneously, you must specify
a new disk group name for the clone disk group.
See Importing the cloned disks as a new standard disk group on page 640.
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To import the disk group with only the cloned disks
Make sure that at least one of the cloned disks has a copy of the current
configuration database in its private region.
See Setting up configuration database copies (metadata) for a disk group
on page 643.
Import only the cloned disks by specifying the -o useclonedev=on option to

the vxdg import command, as shown in this example:
# vxdg -o useclonedev=on [-o updateid] import mydg
This form of the command allows only cloned disks to be imported. All
non-cloned disks remain unimported.
Specify the -o updateid option to write new identification attributes to the
disks, and to set the clone_disk flag on the disks. (The vxdisk set clone=on
command can also be used to set the flag.)
Importing the cloned disks as a new standard disk group

If the standard (non-clone) disks in a disk group are already imported, you cannot
simultaneously import the cloned disks in the same disk group. VxVM does not
support a disk group with both clone and non-clone disks. If you want to import the
cloned disks, you must specify a new disk group name for the disk group containing
the cloned disks.
Be sure to import a consistent set of cloned disks, which represent a single point
of time copy of the original disks. Each of the disks must have either the
udid_mismatch flag or the clone_disk flag or both. No two of the disks should
have the same stored UDID. That is, there must not be two copies of the same
original disk.
You must use tags if multiple copies of one or more cloned disks exist.
After the import operation, the udid_mismatch flag and the clone_disk flag are
cleared from the disks in the new disk group. The new disk group becomes a
standard disk group, and the disks become standard disks.
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To import the cloned disks as a new disk group
Make sure that at least one of the cloned disks has a copy of the current
configuration database in its private region.
See Setting up configuration database copies (metadata) for a disk group
on page 643.
Import only the cloned disks by specifying the -o useclonedev=on option to

the vxdg import command, as shown in this example:
# vxdg -t -n clonedg -o useclonedev=on -o tag=my_tagged_disks \
import mydg
This form of the command allows only cloned disks to be imported.
Importing a set of cloned disks with tags

If you copy the same set of disks more than once, each disk has multiple clone
disks. VxVM recognizes the difference between the source disks and the clone
disks, but cannot determine which clone disks represent a consistent set of data.
For example, if you take several hardware snapshots at different times, one set of
cloned disks represents each snapshot point in time.
If you attempt to import the cloned disks of the disk group (using the -o useclonedev
option), the import operation fails if VxVM detects multiple clones of the same disks.
This behavior prevents import of an inconsistent set of disks. For example, a mix
of snapshot disks from different points in time.
If multiple clone sets exist, you must indicate to VxVM which clone disks to select
for import. Identify the disks that make up a consistent set and assign VxVM tags
to the disks. Then, you can import the cloned disks with the specified tag.
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To import a set of cloned disks with tags
Identify which disks need to be imported together as a set.

# vxdisk -o alldgs list
DEVICE
EMC0_4
EMC0_6
EMC0_8
EMC0_15
EMC0_18
EMC0_24
TYPE
auto:cdsdisk
auto:cdsdisk
auto:cdsdisk
auto:cdsdisk
auto:cdsdisk
auto:cdsdisk
DISK
mydg01
mydg02
-
GROUP
mydg
mydg
(mydg)
(mydg)
(mydg)
(mydg)
STATUS
online
online
online
online
online
online
udid_mismatch
udid_mismatch
udid_mismatch
udid_mismatch
If the disks are not already tagged, use the following command to tag all the
disks in the disk group that are to be imported:
# vxdisk [-g diskgroup ] settag tagname
disk ...
where tagname is a string of up to 128 characters, not including spaces or

tabs.
For example, suppose the udid_mismatch disks represent two different
point-in-time snapshots. To distinguish between the snapshots, you can tag
the disks as follows:
# vxdisk settag snaptag1=snap1 EMC0_8 EMC0_15
# vxdisk settag snaptag2=snap2 EMC0_18 EMC0_24
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To check which disks are tagged, use the vxdisk listtag command:
# vxdisk listtag
DEVICE
EMC0_8
EMC0_15
EMC0_18
EMC0_24
NAME
snaptag1
snaptag1
snaptag2
snaptag2
VALUE
snap1
snap1
snap2
snap2
To import the cloned disks that are tagged as snaptag1, update the UDIDs.
You must assign a disk group name other than mydg, because the mydg disk
group is already imported.
# vxdg -n bcvdg -o useclonedev=on -o tag=snaptag1 -o updateid \
import mydg
# vxdisk -o alldgs list
DEVICE
EMC0_4
EMC0_6
EMC0_8
EMC0_15
EMC0_18
EMC0_24
TYPE
auto:cdsdisk
auto:cdsdisk
auto:cdsdisk
auto:cdsdisk
auto:cdsdisk
auto:cdsdisk
DISK
mydg01
mydg02
mydg01
mydg02
-
GROUP
mydg
mydg
bcvdg
bcvdg
(mydg)
(mydg)
STATUS
online
online
online
online
online udid_mismatch
online udid_mismatch
The cloned disks EMC0_18 and EMC0_24 are not imported, since they do not
have the snaptag1.
The state of the imported cloned disks has changed from online
udid_mismatch to online. The disks are now in a new disk group, so VxVM
removes the clone_disk flag.
Setting up configuration database copies (metadata) for a disk group

Each VxVM disk group has a configuration database that contains persistent
configuration data (or metadata) about the objects in the disk group. VxVM consults
this database when the disk group is imported. The configuration database is stored
in the private region of one or more VxVM disks in the disk group. The number of
stored configuration copies is set for each disk group.
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If you import only a partial set of disks in a disk group, you must ensure that at least
one of the imported disks contains a copy of the current configuration database.
To set up the configuration copies on a set of disks
Use the following command to place a copy of the configuration database and
kernel log on all disks in a disk group that share the specified tag:
# vxdg [-g diskgroup] set tagmeta=on tag=tagname nconfig=all \
nlog=all
If you have set tagmeta=on for a disk group, use the following command to
view the disk tags and the value set for the number of configuration copies. A
value of -1 indicates that all tagged disks maintain configuration or log copies.
# vxdg listmeta diskgroup
To set up the configuration copy on a specific disk
Use the following command to place a copy of the configuration copy (metadata)
on the specified disk, regardless of the placement policy for the disk group.
You can set this attribute before or after the disk is added to a disk group.
# vxdisk [-g diskgroup] set disk keepmeta=always
Renaming a disk group

Only one disk group of a given name can exist per system. It is not possible to
import or deport a disk group when the target system already has a disk group of
the same name. To avoid this problem, VxVM allows you to rename a disk group
during import or deport.
To rename a disk group during import, use the following command:
# vxdg [-t] -n newdg import diskgroup
If the -t option is included, the import is temporary and does not persist across
reboots. In this case, the stored name of the disk group remains unchanged on its
original host, but the disk group is known by the name specified by newdg to the
importing host. If the -t option is not used, the name change is permanent.
For example, this command temporarily renames the disk group, mydg, as mytempdg
on import:
# vxdg -t -n mytempdg import mydg
To rename a disk group during deport, use the following command:
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# vxdg [-h hostname] -n newdg deport diskgroup
When renaming on deport, you can specify the -h hostname option to assign a
lock to an alternate host. This ensures that the disk group is automatically imported
when the alternate host reboots.
For example, this command renames the disk group, mydg, as myexdg, and deports
it to the host, jingo:
# vxdg -h jingo -n myexdg deport mydg
You cannot use this method to rename the boot disk group because it contains
volumes that are in use by mounted file systems (such as /). To rename the boot
disk group, you must first unmirror and unencapsulate the root disk, and then
re-encapsulate and remirror the root disk in a different disk group. This disk group
becomes the new boot disk group.
See Rootability on page 679.
To temporarily move the boot disk group, bootdg, from one host to another (for
repair work on the root volume, for example) and then move it back
On the original host, identify the disk group ID of the bootdg disk group to be
imported with the following command:
# vxdisk -g bootdg -s list
dgname: rootdg
dgid: 774226267.1025.tweety
In this example, the administrator has chosen to name the boot disk group as
rootdg. The ID of this disk group is 774226267.1025.tweety.
This procedure assumes that all the disks in the boot disk group are accessible
by both hosts.
Shut down the original host.
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On the importing host, import and rename the rootdg disk group with this
command:
# vxdg -tC -n newdg import diskgroup
The -t option indicates a temporary import name, and the -C option clears
import locks. The -n option specifies an alternate name for the rootdg being
imported so that it does not conflict with the existing rootdg. diskgroup is the
disk group ID of the disk group being imported (for example,
774226267.1025.tweety).
If a reboot or crash occurs at this point, the temporarily imported disk group
becomes unimported and requires a reimport.
After the necessary work has been done on the imported disk group, deport it
back to its original host with this command:
# vxdg -h hostname deport diskgroup
Here hostname is the name of the system whose rootdg is being returned
(the system name can be confirmed with the command uname -n).
This command removes the imported disk group from the importing host and
returns locks to its original host. The original host can then automatically import
its boot disk group at the next reboot.
Handling conflicting configuration copies

If an incomplete disk group is imported on several different systems, this can create
inconsistencies in the disk group configuration copies that you may need to resolve
manually. This section and following sections describe how such a condition can
occur, and how to correct it. (When the condition occurs in a cluster that has been
split, it is usually referred to as a serial split brain condition).
Example of a serial split brain condition in a cluster

This section presents an example of how a serial split brain condition might occur
for a shared disk group in a cluster. Conflicts between configuration copies can
also occur for private disk groups in clustered and non-clustered configurations
where the disk groups have been partially imported on different systems.
A campus cluster (also known as a stretch cluster or remote mirror configuration)
typically consists of a 2-node cluster where each component (server, switch and
storage) of the cluster exists in a separate building.
646

Figure 30-5 shows a 2-node cluster with node 0, a Fibre Channel switch and disk
enclosure enc0 in building A, and node 1, another switch and enclosure enc1 in
building B.
Typical arrangement of a 2-node campus cluster
Figure 30-5
Node 0
Node 1
Redundant private
network
Fibre Channel switches
Disk enclosures
enc0
enc1
Building A
Building B
The Fibre Channel connectivity is multiply redundant to implement redundant-loop

access between each node and each enclosure. As usual, the two nodes are also
linked by a redundant private network.
A serial split brain condition typically arises in a cluster when a private (non-shared)
disk group is imported on Node 0 with Node 1 configured as the failover node.
If the network connections between the nodes are severed, both nodes think that
the other node has died. (This is the usual cause of the split brain condition in
clusters). If a disk group is spread across both enclosure enc0 and enc1, each
portion loses connectivity to the other portion of the disk group. Node 0 continues
to update to the disks in the portion of the disk group that it can access. Node 1,
operating as the failover node, imports the other portion of the disk group (with the
-f option set), and starts updating the disks that it can see.
When the network links are restored, attempting to reattach the missing disks to
the disk group on Node 0, or to re-import the entire disk group on either node, fails.
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VxVM increments the serial ID in the disk media record of each imported disk in all
the disk group configuration databases on those disks, and also in the private region
of each imported disk. The value that is stored in the configuration database
represents the serial ID that the disk group expects a disk to have. The serial ID
that is stored in a disks private region is considered to be its actual value. VxVM
detects the serial split brain when the actual serial ID of the disks that are being
attached mismatches with the serial ID in the disk group configuration database of
the imported disk group.
If some disks went missing from the disk group (due to physical disconnection or
power failure) and those disks were imported by another host, the serial IDs for the
disks in their copies of the configuration database, and also in each disks private
region, are updated separately on that host. When the disks are subsequently
re-imported into the original shared disk group, the actual serial IDs on the disks
do not agree with the expected values from the configuration copies on other disks
in the disk group.
Depending on what happened to the different portions of the split disk group, there
are two possibilities for resolving inconsistencies between the configuration
databases:
If the other disks in the disk group were not imported on another host, VxVM
resolves the conflicting values of the serial IDs by using the version of the
configuration database from the disk with the greatest value for the updated ID
(shown as update_id in the output from the vxdg list diskgroup command).
Figure 30-6 shows an example of a serial split brain condition that can be
resolved automatically by VxVM.
648

Figure 30-6
Example of a serial split brain condition that can be resolved

automatically
Partial disk group

imported on host X
Disk B not imported
Disk A
Disk B
Disk A = 1
Disk B = 0
Configuration
database
Expected A = 1
Expected B = 0
Configuration
database
Expected A = 0
Expected B = 0
1. Disk A is imported on a separate

host. Disk B is not imported. The
actual and expected serial IDs are
updated only on Disk A.
Imported shared disk group

Disk A
Disk B
Disk A = 1
Disk B = 0
Configuration
database
Expected A = 1
Expected B = 0
Configuration
database
Expected A = 1
Expected B = 0
2. The disk group is re-imported

on the cluster. The configuration
copy on Disk A is used to correct
the configuration copy on Disk B
as the actual value of the updated
ID on Disk A is the greatest.
If the other disks were also imported on another host, no disk can be considered
to have a definitive copy of the configuration database.
Figure 30-7 shows an example of a true serial split brain condition that cannot
be resolved automatically by VxVM.
649

Figure 30-7
650
Example of a true serial split brain condition that cannot be resolved

automatically
Partial disk group

imported on host X
Partial disk group

imported on host Y
Disk A
Disk B
Disk A = 1
Configuration
database
Expected A = 1
Expected B = 0
Disk B = 1
Configuration
database
Expected A = 0
Expected B = 1
1. Disks A and B are imported

independently on separate hosts.
The actual and expected serial IDs
are updated independently on each
disk.
Shared disk group fails to import

Disk A
Disk B
Disk A = 1
Configuration
database
Expected A = 1
Expected B = 0
Configuration
database
Expected A = 0
Expected B = 1
Disk B = 1
2. The disk group cannot be reimported on the cluster. This is

because the databases to not agree
on the actual and expected serial
IDs. You must choose which
configuration database to use.
In this case, the disk group import fails, and the vxdg utility outputs error messages
similar to the following before exiting:
VxVM vxconfigd NOTICE V-5-0-33 Split Brain. da id is 0.1, while dm id

is 0.0 for DM mydg01
VxVM vxdg ERROR V-5-1-587 Disk group newdg: import failed: Serial
Split Brain detected. Run vxsplitlines
The import does not succeed even if you specify the -f flag to vxdg.
Although it is usually possible to resolve this conflict by choosing the version of the
configuration database with the highest valued configuration ID (shown as the value
of seqno in the output from the vxdg list diskgroup| grep config command),
this may not be the correct thing to do in all circumstances.
See Correcting conflicting configuration information on page 651.

Correcting conflicting configuration information

To resolve conflicting configuration information, you must decide which disk contains
the correct version of the disk group configuration database. To assist you in doing
this, you can run the vxsplitlines command to show the actual serial ID on each
disk in the disk group and the serial ID that was expected from the configuration
database. For each disk, the command also shows the vxdg command that you
must run to select the configuration database copy on that disk as being the definitive
copy to use for importing the disk group.
Note: The disk group must have a version number of at least 110.
The following is sample output from running vxsplitlines on the disk group newdg:
# vxsplitlines -v -g newdg
VxVM. vxsplitlines NOTICE V-0-0-0 There are 2 pools
All the disks in the first pool have the same config copies
All the disks in the second pool may not have the same config copies
To see the configuration copy from a disk, enter the following command:
# /etc/vx/diag.d/vxprivutil dumpconfig private path
To import the disk group with the configuration copy from a disk, enter the following
command:
# /usr/sbin/vxdg (-s) -o selectcp=diskid import newdg
Pool 0
DEVICE DISK DISK ID DISK PRIVATE PATH
newdg1 sdp 1215378871.300.vm2850lx13 /dev/vx/rdmp/sdp5
newdg2 sdq 1215378871.300.vm2850lx13 /dev/vx/rdmp/sdp5
Pool 1
DEVICE DISK DISK ID DISK PRIVATE PATH
newdg3 sdo 1215378871.294.vm2850lx13 /dev/vx/rdmp/sdo5
If you do not specify the -v option, the command has the following output:
# vxsplitlines -g mydg listssbinfo
VxVM vxdg listssbinfo NOTICE V-0-0-0 There are 2 pools
All the disks in the first pool have the same config copies
All the disks in the second pool may not have the same config copies
651

652
Number of disks in the first pool: 1

Number of disks in the second pool: 1
To import the disk group with the configuration copy from the first pool, enter the
following command:
# /usr/sbin/vxdg (-s) -o selectcp=1221451925.395.vm2850lx13 import mydg
To import the disk group with the configuration copy from the second pool, enter
# /usr/sbin/vxdg (-s) -o selectcp=1221451927.401.vm2850lx13 import mydg
In this example, the disk group has four disks, and is split so that two disks appear
to be on each side of the split.
You can specify the -c option to vxsplitlines to print detailed information about
each of the disk IDs from the configuration copy on a disk specified by its disk
access name:
# vxsplitlines
-g newdg -c sde
DANAME(DMNAME) || Actual SSB

sdd( sdd ) || 0.1
sde( sde ) || 0.1
sdf( sdf ) || 0.1
sdg( sdg ) || 0.1
||
||
||
||
||
Expected SSB
0.0 ssb ids dont match
0.1 ssb ids match
0.1 ssb ids match
0.0 ssb ids dont match
Please note that even though some disks ssb ids might match
that does not necessarily mean that those disks config copies
have all the changes. From some other configuration copies,
those disks ssb ids might not match. To see the configuration
from this disk, run
/etc/vx/diag.d/vxprivutil dumpconfig /dev/vx/dmp/sde
Based on your knowledge of how the serial split brain condition came about, you
must choose one disks configuration to be used to import the disk group. For
example, the following command imports the disk group using the configuration
copy that is on side 0 of the split:
# /usr/sbin/vxdg -o selectcp=1045852127.32.olancha import newdg
When you have selected a preferred configuration copy, and the disk group has
been imported, VxVM resets the serial IDs to 0 for the imported disks. The actual
and expected serial IDs for any disks in the disk group that are not imported at this
time remain unaltered.

Disabling a disk group

To disable a disk group, unmount and stop any volumes in the disk group, and then
use the following command to deport it:
Deporting a disk group does not actually remove the disk group. It disables use of
the disk group by the system. Disks in a deported disk group can be reused,
reinitialized, added to other disk groups, or imported for use on other systems. Use
the vxdg import command to re-enable access to the disk group.
Destroying a disk group

The vxdg command provides a destroy option that removes a disk group from the
system and frees the disks in that disk group for reinitialization:
# vxdg destroy diskgroup
Warning: This command destroys all data on the disks.

When a disk group is destroyed, the disks that are released can be re-used in other
disk groups.
Recovering a destroyed disk group

If a disk group has been accidentally destroyed, you can recover it, provided that
the disks that were in the disk group have not been modified or reused elsewhere.
To recover a destroyed disk group
Enter the following command to find out the disk group ID (dgid) of one of the
disks that was in the disk group:
# vxdisk -s list disk_access_name
The disk must be specified by its disk access name, such as sdc. Examine the
output from the command for a line similar to the following that specifies the
disk group ID.
dgid:
963504895.1075.bass
Use the disk group ID to import the disk group:

# vxdg import dgid
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Backing up and restoring disk group configuration data

The disk group configuration backup and restoration feature allows you to back up
and restore all configuration data for disk groups, and for VxVM objects such as
volumes that are configured within the disk groups. The vxconfigbackupd daemon
monitors changes to the VxVM configuration and automatically records any
configuration changes that occur. By default, vxconfigbackup stores 5 copies of
the configuration backup and restoration (cbr) data. You can customize the number
of cbr copies, between 1 to 5 copies.
See the vxconfigbackupd(1M) manual page.
VxVM provides the utilities, vxconfigbackup and vxconfigrestore, for backing
up and restoring a VxVM configuration for a disk group.
See the vxconfigbackup(1M) manual page.
See the vxconfigrestore(1M) manual page.
Backing up and restoring Flexible Storage Sharing disk group

configuration data
The disk group configuration backup and restoration feature also lets you back up
and restore configuration data for Flexible Storage Sharing (FSS) disk groups. The
vxconfigbackupd daemon automatically records any configuration changes that
occur on all cluster nodes. When restoring FSS disk group configuration data, you
must first restore the configuration data on the secondary (slave) nodes in the
cluster, which creates remote disks by exporting any locally connected disks. After
restoring the configuration data on the secondary nodes, you must restore the
configuration data on the primary (master) node that will import the disk group.
To back up FSS disk group configuration data
To back up FSS disk group configuration data on all cluster nodes that have
connectivity to at least one disk in the disk group, type the following command:
# /etc/vx/bin/vxconfigbackup -T diskgroup
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To restore the configuration data for an FSS disk group
Identify the master node:

# vxclustadm nidmap
Check if the primary node has connectivity to at least one disk in the disk group.
The disk can be a direct attached storage (DAS) disk, partially shared disk, or
fully shared disks.
If the primary node does not have connectivity to any disk in the disk group,
switch the primary node to a node that has connectivity to at least one DAS or
partially shared disk, using the following command:
# vxclustadm setmaster node_name
Restore the configuration data on all the secondary nodes:

# vxconfigrestore diskgroup
Note: You must restore the configuration data on all secondary nodes that have
connectivity to at least one disk in the disk group.
Restore the configuration data on the primary node:

# vxconfigrestore diskgroup
Verify the configuration data:

# vxprint -g diskgroup
If the configuration data is correct, commit the configuration:

# vxconfigrestore -c diskgroup
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To abort or decommit configuration restoration for an FSS disk group
Identify the master node:

# vxclustadm nidmap
Abort or decommit the configuration data on the master node:

# vxconfigrestore -d diskgroup
Abort or decommit the configuration data on all secondary nodes.

# vxconfigrestore -d diskgroup
Note: You must abort or decommit the configuration data on all secondary
nodes that have connectivity to at least one disk in the disk group, and all
secondary nodes from which you triggered the precommit.
See the vxconfigbackup(1M) manual page.
See the vxconfigrestore(1M) manual page.
Working with existing ISP disk groups

The Intelligent Storage Provisioning (ISP) feature of Veritas Volume Manager
(VxVM) has been deprecated. This release does not support creating ISP disk
groups. If you have existing ISP disk groups, you can import the disk groups without
upgrading the disk group version. In this case, you cannot perform any operations
on ISP volumes that would result in a configuration change. In addition, you cannot
use any of the current release functionality that requires the upgraded disk group
version.
You can upgrade an ISP disk group to the current disk group version. This operation
converts all ISP volumes to standard (non-ISP) volumes and deletes ISP-specific
objects. The ISP-specific objects include st pool, volume template, capability, and
rules. This operation does not affect nonISP volumes.
Note: When you upgrade the ISP disk group, all intent and storage pools information
is lost. Only upgrade the disk group when this condition is acceptable.
656

To determine whether a disk group is an ISP disk group
Check for the presence of storage pools, using the following command:
# vxprint
Sample output:
Disk group: mydg
TY NAME
ASSOC
dg mydg
mydg
KSTATE
-
LENGTH
-
PLOFFS STATE
TUTIL0 PUTIL0
ALLOC_SUP -
dm mydg2
dm mydg3
ams_wms0_359 ams_wms0_360 -
4120320 4120320 -
st mypool
dm mydg1
ams_wms0_358 -
4120320 -
DATA
-
v myvol0
fsgen
pl myvol0-01 myvol0
sd mydg1-01 myvol0-01
ENABLED 20480
ENABLED 20480
ENABLED 20480
ACTIVE
ACTIVE
-
v myvol1
fsgen
pl myvol1-01 myvol1
sd mydg1-02 myvol1-01
ENABLED 20480
ENABLED 20480
ENABLED 20480
ACTIVE
ACTIVE
-
In the sample output, st mypool indicates that mydg is an ISP disk group.
To upgrade an ISP disk group
Upgrade the ISP disk group using the following command:

# vxdg upgrade ISP_diskgroup
To use an ISP disk group as is
To import an ISP disk group, use the following command:

# vxdg import ISP_diskgroup
The ISP volumes in the disk group are not allowed to make any configuration
changes until the disk group is upgraded. Attempting any operations such as grow
shrink, add mirror, disk group split join, etc, on ISP volumes would give the following
error:
657

This disk group is a ISP disk group. Dg needs to be migrated to

non-ISP dg to allow any configuration changes. Please upgrade
the dg to perform the migration.
Note: Non-ISP or VxVM volumes in the ISP disk group are not affected.
Operations that still work on ISP disk group without upgrading:
Setting, removing, and replacing volume tags.
Renaming of any VxVM objects such as volume, dg, plex, etc.
Plex attach and detach.
The vxconfigbackup and vxconfigrestore command can be used at the cost

of losing any intent information

This section describes managing plexes and subdisks.
A subdisk is a set of contiguous disk blocks. VxVM allocates disk space using
subdisks.
A plex is a logical groupings of subdisks that creates an area of disk space
independent of physical disk size or other restrictions. Replication (mirroring) of
disk data is set up by creating multiple data plexes for a single volume. Each data
plex in a mirrored volume contains an identical copy of the volume data.
A plex becomes a participating plex for a volume when it is attached to a volume.
Attaching a plex associates it with the volume and enables the plex for use.
Reattaching plexes
When a mirror plex encounters irrecoverable errors, Veritas Volume Manager
(VxVM) detaches the plex from the mirrored volume. An administrator may also
detach a plex manually using a utility such as vxplex or vxassist. In order to use a
plex that was previously attached to a volume, the plex must be reattached to the
volume. The reattach operation also ensures that the plex mirror is resynchronized
to the other plexes in the volume.
See Plex synchronization on page 661.
The following methods are available for reattaching plexes:
By default, VxVM automatically reattaches the affected mirror plexes when the
underlying failed disk or LUN becomes visible. When VxVM detects that the
658

device is online, VxVM automatically recovers the volume components on the

involved LUN. VxVM resynchronizes the plex and the mirror becomes available.
See Automatic plex reattachment on page 659.
If the automatic reattachment feature is disabled, you need to reattach the plexes
manually. You may also need to manually reattach the plexes for devices that
are not automatically reattached. For example, VxVM does not automatically
reattach plexes on site-consistent volumes.
See Reattaching a plex manually on page 660.
Automatic plex reattachment

When a mirror plex encounters irrecoverable errors, Veritas Volume Manager
(VxVM) detaches the plex from the mirrored volume. By default, VxVM automatically
reattaches the affected mirror plexes when the underlying failed disk or LUN
becomes visible. When VxVM detects that the device is online, the VxVM volume
components on the involved LUN are automatically recovered, and the mirrors
become usable.
VxVM uses the DMP failed LUN probing to detect when the device has come online.
The timing for a reattach depends on the dmp_restore_interval, which is a tunable
parameter. The number of LUNs that have reconnected may also affect the time
required before the plex is reattached.
VxVM does not automatically reattach plexes on site-consistent volumes.
When VxVM is installed or the system reboots, VxVM starts the vxattachd daemon.
The vxattachd daemon handles automatic reattachment for both plexes and sites.
Thevxattachd daemon also initiates the resynchronization process for a plex. After
a plex is successfully reattached, vxattachd notifies root.
To disable automatic plex attachment, remove vxattachd from the start up scripts.
Disabling vxattachd disables the automatic reattachment feature for both plexes
and sites.
In a Cluster Volume Manager (CVM) the following considerations apply:
If the global detach policy is set, a storage failure from any node causes all
plexes on that storage to be detached globally. When the storage is connected
back to any node, the vxattachd daemon triggers reattaching the plexes on
the master node only.
The automatic reattachment functionality is local to a node. When enabled on

a node, all of the disk groups imported on the node are monitored. If the
automatic reattachment functionality is disabled on a master node, the feature
is disable on all shared disk groups and private disk groups imported on the
master node.
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The vxattachd daemon listens for "dmpnode online" events using vxnotify to
trigger its operation. Therefore, an automatic reattachment is not triggered if the
dmpnode online event is not generated when vxattachd is running. The following
are typical examples:
Storage is reconnected before vxattachd is started; for example, during

reboot.
In CVM, with active/passive arrays, if all nodes cannot agree on a common

path to an array controller, a plex can get detached due to I/O failure. In
these cases, the dmpnode will not get disabled. Therefore, after the
connections are restored, a dmpnode online event is not generated and
automatic plex reattachment is not triggered.
These CVM considerations also apply to automatic site reattachment.
Reattaching a plex manually

This section describes how to reattach plexes manually if automatic reattachment
feature is disabled. This procedure may also be required for devices that are not
automatically reattached. For example, VxVM does not automatically reattach plexes
on site-consistent volumes.
When a disk has been repaired or replaced and is again ready for use, the plexes
must be put back online (plex state set to ACTIVE). To set the plexes to ACTIVE,
use one of the following procedures depending on the state of the volume.
If the volume is currently ENABLED, use the following command to reattach the
plex:
# vxplex [-g diskgroup] att volume plex ...
For example, for a plex named vol01-02 on a volume named vol01 in the disk
group, mydg, use the following command:
# vxplex -g mydg att vol01 vol01-02
As when returning an OFFLINE plex to ACTIVE, this command starts to recover

the contents of the plex and, after the recovery is complete, sets the plex utility
state to ACTIVE.
If the volume is not in use (not ENABLED), use the following command to re-enable
the plex for use:
# vxmend [-g diskgroup] on plex
For example, to re-enable a plex named vol01-02 in the disk group, mydg, enter:
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# vxmend -g mydg on vol01-02
In this case, the state of vol01-02 is set to STALE. When the volume is next
started, the data on the plex is revived from another plex, and incorporated into
the volume with its state set to ACTIVE.
If the vxinfo command shows that the volume is unstartable, set one of the
plexes to CLEAN using the following command:
# vxmend [-g diskgroup] fix clean plex
Start the volume using the following command:

# vxvol [-g diskgroup] start volume
See the Symantec Storage Foundation High Availability Solutions

Plex synchronization
Each plex or mirror of a volume is a complete copy of the data. When a plex is
attached to a volume, the data in the plex must be synchronized with the data in
the other plexes in the volume. The plex that is attached may be a new mirror or a
formerly attached plex. A new mirror must be fully synchronized. A formerly attached
plex only requires the changes that were applied since the plex was detached.
The following operations trigger a plex synchronization:
Moving or copying a subdisk with the vxsd command. The operation creates a
temporary plex that is synchronized with the original subdisk.
Adding a mirror with the vxassist mirror command.
Creating a volume with a mirror with the vxassist make command.
Manually reattaching a plex with the vxplex att command.
Recovering a volume with the vxrecover command.
Adding a mirror to a snapshot with the vxsnap addmir command.
Reattaching or restoring a snapshot with the vxsnap command.
Plex synchronization can be a long-running operation, depending on the size of the

volume and the amount of data that needs to be synchronized. Veritas Volume
Manager provides several features to improve the efficiency of synchronizing the
plexes.
FastResync
If the FastResync feature is enabled, VxVM maintains a FastResync map on
the volume. VxVM uses the FastResync map to apply only the updates that the
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mirror has missed. This behavior provides an efficient way to resynchronize the
plexes.
SmartMove
The SmartMove feature reduces the time and I/O required to attach or reattach
a plex to a VxVM volume with a mounted VxFS file system. The SmartMove
feature uses the VxFS information to detect free extents and avoid copying
them.
When the SmartMove feature is on, less I/O is sent through the host, through
the storage network and to the disks or LUNs. The SmartMove feature can be
used for faster plex creation and faster array migrations.
Recovery for synchronization tasks

In this release, VxVM tracks the plex synchronization for the following commands:
vxplex att, vxassist mirror, vxsnap addmir, vxsnap reattach, and vxsnap
restore. If the system crashes or the vxconfigd daemon fails, VxVM provides
automatic recovery for the synchronization task. When the system is recovered,
VxVM restarts the synchronization from the point where it failed. The
synchronization occurs in the background, so the volume is available without
delay.
This section describes how you remove disks and volumes from VxVM.
Removing a volume
If a volume is inactive or its contents have been archived, you may no longer need
it. In that case, you can remove the volume and free up the disk space for other
uses.
To remove a volume
Remove all references to the volume by application programs, including shells,

that are running on the system.
If the volume is mounted as a file system, unmount it with the following

command:
# umount /dev/vx/dsk/diskgroup/volume
If the volume is listed in the /etc/fstab file, edit this file and remove its entry.
For more information about the format of this file and how you can modify it,
see your operating system documentation.
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Stop all activity by VxVM on the volume with the following command:
# vxvol [-g diskgroup] stop volume
Remove the volume using the vxassist command as follows:

# vxassist [-g diskgroup] remove volume volume
You can also use the vxedit command to remove the volume as follows:
# vxedit [-g diskgroup] [-r] [-f] rm volume
The -r option to vxedit indicates recursive removal. This command removes

all the plexes that are associated with the volume and all subdisks that are
associated with the plexes. The -f option to vxedit forces removal. If the
volume is still enabled, you must specify this option.
Removing a disk from VxVM control

After removing a disk from a disk group, you can permanently remove it from Veritas
Volume Manager control.
Warning: The vxdiskunsetup command removes a disk from Veritas Volume
Manager control by erasing the VxVM metadata on the disk. To prevent data loss,
any data on the disk should first be evacuated from the disk. The vxdiskunsetup
command should only be used by a system administrator who is trained and
knowledgeable about Veritas Volume Manager.
To remove a disk from VxVM control

# /usr/lib/vxvm/bin/vxdiskunsetup sdx
See the vxdiskunsetup(1m) manual page.
About shredding data

When you decommission a disk that contained sensitive data, you may need to
destroy any remaining data on the disk. Simply deleting the data may not adequately
protect the confidential and secure data. In addition to deleting the data, you want
to prevent the possibility that hackers can recover any information that is stored on
the disks. Regulatory standards require that the confidential and secure data is
sanitized or erased using a method such as overwriting the data with a digital
pattern. Veritas Volume Manager (VxVM) provides the disk shred operation, which
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overwrites all of the addressable blocks with a digital pattern in one, three, or seven
passes.
Caution: All data in the volume will be lost when you shred it. Make sure that the
information has been backed up onto another storage medium and verified, or that
it is no longer needed.
VxVM provides the ability to shred the data on the disk to minimize the chance that
the data is recoverable. When you specify the disk shred operation, VxVM shreds
the entire disk, including any existing disk labels. After the shred operation, VxVM
writes a new empty label on the disk to prevent the disk from going to the error
state. The VxVM shred operation provides the following methods of overwriting a
disk:
One-pass algorithm
VxVM overwrites the disk with a randomly-selected digital pattern. This option
takes the least amount of time. The default type is the one-pass algorithm.
Three-pass algorithm
VxVM overwrites the disk a total of three times. In the first pass, VxVM overwrites
the data with a pre-selected digital pattern. The second time, VxVM overwrites
the data with the binary complement of the pattern. In the last pass, VxVM
overwrites the disk with a randomly-selected digital pattern.
Seven-pass algorithm
VxVM overwrites the disk a total of seven times. In each pass, VxVM overwrites
the data with a randomly-selected digital pattern or with the binary complement
of the previous pattern.
VxVM does not currently support shredding of thin-reclaimable LUNs. If you attempt
to start the shred operation on a thin-reclaimable disk, VxVM displays a warning
message and skips the disk.
Shredding a VxVM disk

When you decommission a Veritas Volume Manager (VxVM) disk that contains
sensitive data, VxVM provides the ability to shred the data on the disk.
Note the following requirements:
VxVM does not shred a disk that is in use by VxVM on this system or in a shared
disk group.
VxVM does not currently support shredding of thin-reclaimable LUNs. If you

attempt to start the shred operation on a thin-reclaimable disk, VxVM displays
a warning message and skips the disk.
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VxVM does not shred a disk that is not a VxVM disk.
VxVM does not shred a disk that is mounted.
Symantec does not recommend shredding solid state drives (SSDs). To shred
SSD devices, use the shred operation with the force (-f) option.
See About shredding data on page 663.

Caution: All data on the disk will be lost when you shred the disk. Make sure that
the information has been backed up onto another storage medium and verified, or
that it is no longer needed.
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To shred a VxVM disk
To shred the disk:

# /etc/vx/bin/vxdiskunsetup [-Cf] -o shred[=1|3|7] disk...
Where:
The force option (-f) permits you to shred Solid State Drives (SSDs).
1, 3 and 7 are the shred options corresponding to the number of passes. The
default number of passes is 1.
disk... represents one or more disk names. If you specify multiple disk names,
the vxdiskunsetup command processes them sequentially, one at a time.
For example:
# /etc/vx/bin/vxdiskunsetup -o shred=3 hds9970v0_14
disk_shred: Shredding disk hds9970v0_14 with type 3
disk_shred: Disk raw size 2097807360 bytes
disk_shred: Writing 32010 (65536 byte size) pages and 0 bytes
to disk
disk_shred: Wipe Pass 0: Pattern 0x3e
disk_shred: Wipe Pass 1: Pattern 0xca
disk_shred: Wipe Pass 2: Pattern 0xe2
disk_shred: Shred passed random verify of 131072 bytes at
offset 160903168
The vxdiskunsetup shred command sets up a new task.
You can monitor the progress of the shred operation with the vxtask command.
For example:
# vxtask list
TASKID PTID TYPE/STATE PCT
PROGRESS
203
- DISKSHRED/R 90.16% 0/12291840/11081728 DISKSHRED
nodg nodg
You can pause, abort, or resume the shred task. You cannot throttle the shred
task.
See vxtask(1m)
If the disk shred operation fails, the disk may go into an error state with no
label.
See Failed disk shred operation results in a disk with no label on page 667.
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Failed disk shred operation results in a disk with no label

The disk shred operation destroys the label for the disk and recreates the label. If
the shred operation aborts in the middle or the system crashes, the disk might go
in an error state with no label.
To correct the error state of the disk
Create a new label manually or reinitialize the disk under VxVM using the
following command:
# /etc/vx/bin/vxdisksetup -i disk
Start the shred operation. If the disk shows as a non-VxVM disk, reinitialize
the disk with the vxdisksetup command in step 1, then restart the shred
operation.
# /etc/vx/bin/vxdiskunsetup [-Cf] -o shred[=1|3|7] disk...
Removing and replacing disks

A replacement disk should have the same disk geometry as the disk that failed.
That is, the replacement disk should have the same bytes per sector, sectors per
track, tracks per cylinder and sectors per cylinder, same number of cylinders, and
the same number of accessible cylinders.
Note: You may need to run commands that are specific to the operating system or
disk array before removing a physical disk.
If failures are starting to occur on a disk, but the disk has not yet failed completely,
you can replace the disk. This involves detaching the failed or failing disk from its
disk group, followed by replacing the failed or failing disk with a new one. Replacing
the disk can be postponed until a later date if necessary.
If removing a disk causes a volume to be disabled, you can restart the volume so
that you can restore its data from a backup.
See the Storage Foundation High Availability Solutions Troubleshooting Guide.
To replace a disk
Select Remove a disk for replacement from the vxdiskadm main menu.
At the following prompt, enter the name of the disk to be replaced (or enter
list for a list of disks):
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When you select a disk to remove for replacement, all volumes that are affected
by the operation are displayed, for example:
VxVM NOTICE V-5-2-371 The following volumes will lose mirrors
as a result of this operation:
home src
No data on these volumes will be lost.
The following volumes are in use, and will be disabled as a
result of this operation:
mkting
Any applications using these volumes will fail future
accesses. These volumes will require restoration from backup.
Are you sure you want do this? [y,n,q,?] (default: n)
To remove the disk, causing the named volumes to be disabled and data to
be lost when the disk is replaced, enter y or press Return.
To abandon removal of the disk, and back up or move the data associated with
the volumes that would otherwise be disabled, enter n or q and press Return.
For example, to move the volume mkting to a disk other than mydg02, use the
following command.
The ! character is a special character in some shells. The following example
# vxassist move mkting \!mydg02
After backing up or moving the data in the volumes, start again from step 1.
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669
At the following prompt, either select the device name of the replacement disk
(from the list provided), press Return to choose the default disk, or enter none
if you are going to replace the physical disk:
The following devices are available as replacements:
sdb
You can choose one of these disks now, to replace mydg02.
Select none if you do not wish to select a replacement disk.
Choose a device, or select none
[<device>,none,q,?] (default: sdb)
Do not choose the old disk drive as a replacement even though it appears in
the selection list. If necessary, you can choose to initialize a new disk.
You can enter none if you intend to replace the physical disk.
See Replacing a failed or removed disk on page 670.
If you chose to replace the disk in step 4, press Return at the following prompt
to confirm this:
VxVM NOTICE V-5-2-285 Requested operation is to remove mydg02
from group mydg. The removed disk will be replaced with disk device
sdb. Continue with operation? [y,n,q,?] (default: y)
vxdiskadm displays the following messages to indicate that the original disk is
being removed:
VxVM NOTICE V-5-2-265 Removal of disk mydg02 completed
successfully.
VxVM NOTICE V-5-2-260 Proceeding to replace mydg02 with device
sdb.
simple disk:
(default: cdsdisk)

region size of 65536 blocks (32 MB). Press Return to confirm that you want to
(default: 65536)
If one of more mirror plexes were moved from the disk, you are now prompted
whether FastResync should be used to resynchronize the plexes:
Use FMR for plex resync? [y,n,q,?] (default: n) y
vxdiskadm displays the following success message:
VxVM NOTICE V-5-2-158 Disk replacement completed successfully.
At the following prompt, indicate whether you want to remove another disk (y)
Remove another disk? [y,n,q,?] (default: n)
It is possible to move hot-relocate subdisks back to a replacement disk.

See Configuring hot-relocation to use only spare disks on page 554.
Replacing a failed or removed disk

The following procedure describes how to replace a failed or removed disk.
To specify a disk that has replaced a failed or removed disk
Select Replace a failed or removed disk from the vxdiskadm main menu.
At the following prompt, enter the name of the disk to be replaced (or enter
list for a list of disks):
Select a removed or failed disk [<disk>,list,q,?] mydg02
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The vxdiskadm program displays the device names of the disk devices available
for use as replacement disks. Your system may use a device name that differs
from the examples. Enter the device name of the disk or press Return to select
the default device:
The following devices are available as replacements:
sdb sdk
You can choose one of these disks to replace mydg02.
Choose "none" to initialize another disk to replace mydg02.
Choose a device, or select "none"
[<device>,none,q,?] (default: sdb)
Depending on whether the replacement disk was previously initialized, perform

the appropriate step from the following:
If the disk has not previously been initialized, press Return at the following
prompt to replace the disk:
VxVM INFO V-5-2-378 The requested operation is to initialize
disk device sdb and to then use that device to
replace the removed or failed disk mydg02 in disk group mydg.
If the disk has already been initialized, press Return at the following prompt
to replace the disk:
VxVM INFO V-5-2-382 The requested operation is to use the
initialized device sdb to replace the removed or
failed disk mydg02 in disk group mydg.
simple disk:
(default: cdsdisk)
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region size of 65536 blocks (32 MB). Press Return to confirm that you want to
(default: 65536)
The vxdiskadm program then proceeds to replace the disk, and returns the
following message on success:
VxVM NOTICE V-5-2-158 Disk replacement completed successfully.
At the following prompt, indicate whether you want to replace another disk (y)
Replace another disk? [y,n,q,?] (default: n)
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Chapter
31
Rootability
Encapsulating a disk
Rootability
Administering an encapsulated boot disk
Unencapsulating the root disk
Warning: Encapsulating a disk requires that the system be rebooted several times.
Schedule performance of this procedure for a time when this does not inconvenience
users.
This section describes how to encapsulate a disk for use in VxVM. Encapsulation
preserves any existing data on the disk when the disk is placed under VxVM control.
A root disk can be encapsulated and brought under VxVM control. However, there
are restrictions on the layout and configuration of root disks that can be
encapsulated.
See Restrictions on using rootability with Linux on page 680.
See Rootability on page 679.
Use the format or fdisk commands to obtain a printout of the root disk partition
table before you encapsulate a root disk. For more information, see the appropriate
manual pages. You may need this information should you subsequently need to
recreate the original root disk.
Rootability
You cannot grow or shrink any volume (rootvol, usrvol, varvol, optvol, swapvol,
and so on) that is associated with an encapsulated root disk. This is because these
volumes map to physical partitions on the disk, and these partitions must be
contiguous.
Disks with msdos disk labels can be encapsulated as auto:sliced disks provided
that they have at least one spare primary partition that can be allocated to the public
region, and one spare primary or logical partition that can be allocated to the private
region.
Disks with sun disk labels can be encapsulated as auto:sliced disks provided
that they have at least two spare slices that can be allocated to the public and
private regions.
Extensible Firmware Interface (EFI) disks with gpt (GUID Partition Table) labels
can be encapsulated as auto:sliced disks provided that they have at least two
spare slices that can be allocated to the public and private regions.
The entry in the partition table for the public region does not require any additional
space on the disk. Instead it is used to represent (or encapsulate) the disk space
that is used by the existing partitions.
Unlike the public region, the partition for the private region requires a small amount
of space at the beginning or end of the disk that does not belong to any existing
partition or slice. By default, the space required for the private region is 32MB, which
is rounded up to the nearest whole number of cylinders. On most modern disks,
one cylinder is usually sufficient.
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Rootability
To encapsulate a disk for use in VxVM
Before encapsulating a root disk, set the device naming scheme used by VxVM
to be persistent.
# vxddladm set namingscheme={osn|ebn} persistence=yes
For example, to use persistent naming with enclosure-based naming:

# vxddladm
set namingscheme=ebn persistence=yes
Select Encapsulate one or more disks from the vxdiskadm main menu.
Your system may use device names that differ from the examples shown here.
At the following prompt, enter the disk device name for the disks to be
encapsulated:
Select disk devices to encapsulate:
[<pattern-list>,all,list,q,?] device name
The pattern-list can be a single disk, or a series of disks. If pattern-list consists

of multiple items, those items must be separated by white space.
If you do not know the address (device name) of the disk to be encapsulated,
enter l or list at the prompt for a complete listing of available disks.
To continue the operation, enter y (or press Return) at the following prompt:
Here is the disk selected. Output format: [Device]
device name
Continue operation? [y,n,q,?] (default: y) y
Select the disk group to which the disk is to be added at the following prompt:
You can choose to add this disk to an existing disk group or to
a new disk group. To create a new disk group, select a disk
group name that does not yet exist.
Which disk group [<group>,list,q,?]
At the following prompt, either press Return to accept the default disk name
or enter a disk name:
Use a default disk name for the disk? [y,n,q,?] (default: y)
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Rootability
To continue with the operation, enter y (or press Return) at the following prompt:
The selected disks will be encapsulated and added to the
disk group name disk group with default disk names.
device name
To confirm that encapsulation should proceed, enter y (or press Return) at the
following prompt:
The following disk has been selected for encapsulation.
device name
Continue with encapsulation? [y,n,q,?] (default: y) y
A message similar to the following confirms that the disk is being encapsulated
for use in VxVM:
The disk device device name will be encapsulated and added to
the disk group diskgroup with the disk name diskgroup01.
For non-root disks, you can now choose whether the disk is to be formatted
as a CDS disk that is portable between different operating systems, or as a
non-portable sliced disk:
(default: cdsdisk)
default format, cdsdisk. Note that only the sliced format is suitable for use
with root, boot or swap disks.
(default: 65536)
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Rootability
10 If you entered cdsdisk as the format in step 8, you are prompted for the action
to be taken if the disk cannot be converted this format:
Do you want to use sliced as the format should cdsdisk
fail? [y,n,q,?] (default: y)
If you enter y, and it is not possible to encapsulate the disk as a CDS disk, it
is encapsulated as a sliced disk. Otherwise, the encapsulation fails.
11
vxdiskadm then proceeds to encapsulate the disks. You should now reboot
your system at the earliest possible opportunity, for example by running this
command:
# shutdown -r now
The /etc/fstab file is updated to include the volume devices that are used to
mount any encapsulated file systems. You may need to update any other
references in backup scripts, databases, or manually created swap devices.
The original /etc/fstab file is saved as /etc/fstab.b4vxvm
12 At the following prompt, indicate whether you want to encapsulate more disks
Encapsulate other disks? [y,n,q,?] (default: n) n
The default layout that is used to encapsulate disks can be changed.
Failure of disk encapsulation

Under some circumstances, encapsulation of a disk can fail because there is not
enough free space available on the disk to accommodate the private region. If there
is insufficient free space , the encapsulation process ends abruptly with an error
message similar to the following:
VxVM ERROR V-5-2-338 The encapsulation operation failed with the
following error:
It is not possible to encapsulate device, for the following
reason:
<VxVM vxslicer ERROR V-5-1-1108 Unsupported disk layout.>
One solution is to configure the disk with the nopriv format.

See Using nopriv disks for encapsulation on page 678.
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Rootability
Using nopriv disks for encapsulation

Encapsulation converts existing partitions on a specified disk to volumes. If any
partitions contain file systems, their /etc/fstab entries are modified so the file
systems are mounted on volumes instead.
Disk encapsulation requires that enough free space be available on the disk (by
default, 32 megabytes) for storing the private region that VxVM uses for disk
identification and configuration information. This free space cannot be included in
any other partitions.
See the vxencap(1M) manual page.
You can encapsulate a disk that does not have space available for the VxVM private
region partition by using the vxdisk utility. To do this, configure the disk as a nopriv
device that does not have a private region.
The drawback with using nopriv devices is that VxVM cannot track changes in the
address or controller of the disk. Normally, VxVM uses identifying information stored
in the private region on the physical disk to track changes in the location of a physical
disk. Because nopriv devices do not have private regions and have no identifying
information stored on the physical disk, tracking cannot occur.
One use of nopriv devices is to encapsulate a disk so that you can use VxVM to
move data off the disk. When space has been made available on the disk, remove
the nopriv device, and encapsulate the disk as a standard disk device.
A disk group cannot be formed entirely from nopriv devices. This is because nopriv
devices do not provide space for storing disk group configuration information.
Configuration information must be stored on at least one disk in the disk group.
Creating a nopriv disk for encapsulation

Warning: Do not use nopriv disks to encapsulate a root disk. If insufficient free space
exists on the root disk for the private region, part of the swap area can be used
instead.
678
Rootability
Rootability
To create a nopriv disk for encapsulation
If it does not exist already, set up a partition on the disk for the area that you
want to access using VxVM.
Use the following command to map a VM disk to the partition:

# vxdisk define partition-device type=nopriv
where partition-device is the basename of the device in the /dev/dsk directory.

For example, to map partition 3 of disk device sdc, use the following command:
# vxdisk define sdc3 type=nopriv
Creating volumes for other partitions on a nopriv disk

To create volumes for other partitions on a nopriv disk
Add the partition to a disk group.
Determine where the partition resides within the encapsulated partition.
If no data is to be preserved on the partition, use vxassist to create a volume

with the required length.
Warning: By default, vxassist re-initializes the data area of a volume that it
creates. If there is data to be preserved on the partition, do not use vxassist.
Instead, create the volume with vxmake and start the volume with the command
vxvol init active.
Rootability
VxVM can place various files from the root file system, swap device, and other file
systems on the root disk under VxVM control. This is called rootability. The root
disk (that is, the disk containing the root file system) can be put under VxVM control
through the process of encapsulation.
Encapsulation converts existing partitions on that disk to volumes. Once under
VxVM control, the root and swap devices appear as volumes and provide the same
characteristics as other VxVM volumes. A volume that is configured for use as a
swap area is referred to as a swap volume, and a volume that contains the root file
system is referred to as a root volume.
679
Rootability
Rootability
Note: Only encapsulate your root disk if you also intend to mirror it. There is no
benefit in root-disk encapsulation for its own sake.
You can mirror the rootvol, and swapvol volumes, as well as other parts of the
root disk that are required for a successful boot of the system (for example, /usr).
This provides complete redundancy and recovery capability in the event of disk
failure. Without mirroring, the loss of the root, swap, or usr partition prevents the
system from being booted from surviving disks.
Mirroring disk drives that are critical to booting ensures that no single disk failure
renders the system unusable. A suggested configuration is to mirror the critical disk
onto another available disk (using the vxdiskadm command). If the disk containing
root and swap partitions fails, the system can be rebooted from a disk containing
mirrors of these partitions.
Recovering a system after the failure of an encapsulated root disk requires the
application of special procedures.
Restrictions on using rootability with Linux

Bootable root disks with msdos disk labels can contain up to four primary partitions:
/dev/sdx1 through /dev/sdx4 for SCSI disks, and /dev/hdx1 through /dev/hdx4
for IDE disks. If more than four partitions are required, a primary partition can be
configured as an extended partition that contains up to 11 logical partitions
(/dev/sdx5 through/dev/sdx15) for SCSI disks and 12 logical partitions (/dev/hdx5
through/dev/sdx16) for IDE disks.
Note: Extensible Firmware Interface (EFI) disks with GUID Partition Table (GPT)
labels are not supported for root encapsulation.
To encapsulate a root disk, VxVM requires one unused primary partition entry to
represent the public region, plus one unused primary partition or one unused logical
partition for the private region.
The entry in the partition table for the public region does not require any additional
space on the disk. Instead it is used to represent (or encapsulate) the disk space
that is used by the existing partitions.
Unlike the public region, the partition for the private region requires a relatively small
amount of disk space. By default, the space required for the private region is 32MB,
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which is rounded up to the nearest whole number of cylinders. On most modern

disks, one cylinder is usually sufficient.
To summarize, the requirements for the partition layout of a root disk that can be
encapsulated are:
One unused primary partition entry for the public region.
Free disk space or a swap partition, from which space can be allocated to the
private region. If the free space or swap partition is not located within an extended
partition, one unused primary partition entry is required for the private region.
Otherwise, one unused logical partition entry is required.
The following error message is displayed by the vxencap or vxdiskadm commands

if you attempt to encapsulate a root disk that does not have the required layout:
Cannot find appropriate partition layout to allocate space
for VxVM public/private partitions.
The following sections show examples of root disk layouts for which encapsulation
is either supported or not supported.
See Sample supported root disk layouts for encapsulation on page 682.
See Sample unsupported root disk layouts for encapsulation on page 685.
Note the following additional important restrictions on using rootability with Linux:
Root disk encapsulation is only supported for devices with standard SCSI or
IDE interfaces. It is not supported for most devices with vendor-proprietary
interfaces, except the COMPAQ SMART and SMARTII controllers, which use
device names of the form /dev/ida/cXdXpX and /dev/cciss/cXdXpX.
Root disk encapsulation is only supported for disks with msdos or gpt labels. It
is not supported for disks with sun labels.
The root, boot, and swap partitions must be on the same disk.
Either the GRUB or the LILO boot loader must be used as the boot loader for
SCSI and IDE disks.
The menu entries in the boot loader configuration file must be valid.
The boot loader configuration file must not be edited during the root encapsulation
process.
The /boot partition must be on the first disk as seen by the BIOS, and this
partition must be a primary partition.
Some systems cannot be configured to ignore local disks. The local disk needs
to be removed when encapsulating. Multi-pathing configuration changes (for
multiple HBA systems) can have the same effect. VxVM supports only those
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systems where the initial bootstrap installation configuration has not been
changed for root encapsulation.
The boot loader must be located in the master boot record (MBR) on the root
disk or any root disk mirror.
If the GRUB boot loader is used, the root device location of the /boot directory
must be set to the first disk drive, sd0 or hd0, to allow encapsulation of the root
disk.
If the LILO or ELILO boot loader is used, do not use the FALLBACK, LOCK or -R
options after encapsulating the root disk.
Warning: Using the FALLBACK, LOCK or -R options with LILO may render your
system unbootable because LILO does not understand the layout of VxVM
volumes.
Booting from an encapsulated root disk which is connected only to the secondary
controller in an A/P (Active/Passive) array is not supported.
The default Red Hat installation layout is not valid for implementing rootability.
If you change the layout of your root disk, ensure that the root disk is still bootable
before attempting to encapsulate it.
See Example 1: unsupported root disk layouts for encapsulation on page 685.
Do not allocate volumes from the root disk after it has been encapsulated. Doing
so may destroy partition information that is stored on the disk.
The device naming scheme must be set to persistent.
Sample supported root disk layouts for encapsulation

The following examples show root disk layouts that support encapsulation.
Example 1: supported root disk layouts for encapsulation

Figure 31-1 shows an example of a supported layout with root and swap configured
on two primary partitions, and some existing free space on the disk.
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Figure 31-1
Root and swap configured on two primary partitions, and free space
on the disk
Before root disk encapsulation

/ (root)
swap
Free
space
Primary partition
Primary partition
After root disk encapsulation

/ (root)
Private
region
swap
Public region
Two primary partitions are in use by / and swap. There are two unused primary
partitions, and free space exists on the disk that can be assigned to a primary
partition for the private region.

Figure 31-2 shows an example of a supported layout with root and swap configured
on two primary partitions, and no existing free space on the disk.
Figure 31-2
Root and swap configured on two primary partitions, and no free

space

/ (root)
Primary partition
swap
Primary partition

/ (root)
swap
Private
region
Public region
Two primary partitions are in use by / and swap. There are two unused primary
partitions, and the private region can be allocated to a new primary partition by
taking space from the end of the swap partition.
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Figure 31-3 shows an example of a supported layout with boot and swap configured
on two primary partitions, and some existing free space in the extended partition.
Figure 31-3
Boot and swap configured on two primary partitions, and free space
in the extended partition

/boot
swap
Primary
partitions
/ (root)
/var
Extended
partition
/home
Logical
partitions
/home1
Free space in
extended partition

/boot
swap
/ (root)
/var
/home
/home1
Private
region
Public region
Three primary partitions are in use by /boot, swap and an extended partition that
contains four file systems including root. There is free space at the end of the
extended primary partition that can be used to create a new logical partition for the
private region.

Figure 31-4 shows an example of a supported layout with boot configured on a
primary partition, and root and swap configured in the extended partition.
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Figure 31-4
Boot configured on a primary partition, and root and swap

configured in the extended partition

/boot
/ (root)
Primary
partitions
Extended
partition
swap
Logical
partitions

/boot
/ (root)
swap
Public region
Private
region
Two primary partitions are in use by /boot and an extended partition that contains
the root file system and swap area. A new logical partition can be created for the
private region by taking space from the end of the swap partition.
Sample unsupported root disk layouts for encapsulation

The following examples show root disk layouts that do not support encapsulation.
Example 1: unsupported root disk layouts for encapsulation

Figure 31-5 shows an example of an unsupported layout with boot, swap and root
configured on three primary partitions, and some existing free space on the disk.
Figure 31-5
/boot
Boot, swap and root configured on three primary partitions, and

free space on the disk
/ (root)
Primary partitions
swap
Free space
This layout, which is similar to the default Red Hat layout, cannot be encapsulated
because only one spare primary partition is available, and neither the swap partition
nor the free space lie within an extended partition.
Figure 31-6 shows a workaround by configuring the swap partition or free space
as an extended partition, and moving the swap area to a logical partition (leaving
enough space for a logical partition to hold the private region).
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Workaround by reconfiguring swap as a logical partition
Figure 31-6
Logical partition
/boot
/ (root)
swap
Extended partition
Primary partitions
Free space in
extended partition
The original swap partition should be deleted. After reconfiguration, this root disk
can be encapsulated.
See Example 3: supported root disk layouts for encapsulation on page 684.
Figure 31-7 shows another possible workaround by recreating /boot as a directory
under /, deleting the /boot partition, and reconfiguring LILO or GRUB to use the
new/boot location.
Figure 31-7
Workaround by reconfiguring /boot as a directory

/ with /boot as a directory
swap
Primary partitions
Free space
Free space
Warning: If the start of the root file system does not lie within the first 1024 cylinders,
moving /boot may render your system unbootable.
After reconfiguration, this root disk can be encapsulated.

Figure 31-8 shows an example of an unsupported layout with boot and swap
configured on two primary partitions, and no existing free space in the extended
partition.
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Figure 31-8
/boot
Boot and swap configured on two primary partitions, and no free

space in the extended partition
swap
Primary
partitions
/ (root)
Extended
partition
Logical
partition
Free space
This layout cannot be encapsulated because only one spare primary partition is
available, and neither the swap partition nor the free space lie within the extended
partition.
Figure 31-9 shows a simple workaround that uses a partition configuration tool to
grow the extended partition into the free space on the disk.
Figure 31-9
/boot
Workaround by growing the extended partition
swap
Primary
partitions
/ (root)
Extended
partition
Logical
partition
Free space in
extended partition
Care should be taken to preserve the boundaries of the logical partition that contains
the root file system. After reconfiguration, this root disk can be encapsulated.

Figure 31-10 shows an example of an unsupported layout with boot and swap
configured on two primary partitions, and no existing free space on the disk.
Figure 31-10
/boot
swap
Primary
partitions
Boot and swap configured on two primary partitions, and no free

space
/ (root)
Extended
partition
/var
/home
Logical
partitions
This layout cannot be encapsulated because only one spare primary partition is
available, the swap partition does not lie in the extended partition, and there is no
free space in the extended partition for an additional logical partition.
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Figure 31-11 shows a possible workaround by shrinking one or more of the existing
file systems and the corresponding logical partitions.
Figure 31-11
/boot
swap
Primary
partitions
Workaround by shrinking existing logical partitions

/ (root)
Extended
partition
/var
Logical
partitions
/home
Free space in
extended partition
Shrinking existing logical partitions frees up space in the extended partition for the
private region. After reconfiguration, this root disk can be encapsulated.

Figure 31-12 shows an example of an unsupported layout with boot and root
configured on two primary partitions, and no more available logical partitions.
Figure 31-12
/boot
Boot and swap configured on two primary partitions, and no more

available logical partitions
/ (root)
Primary
partitions
swap (One of
11 logical
partitions)
Extended
partition
Free space in
extended partition
If this layout exists on a SCSI disk, it cannot be encapsulated because only one
spare primary partition is available, and even though swap is configured on a logical
partition and there is free space in the extended partition, no more logical partitions
can be created. The same problem arises with IDE disks when 12 logical partitions
have been created.
A suggested workaround is to evacuate any data from one of the existing logical
partitions, and then delete this logical partition. This makes one logical partition
available for use by the private region. The root disk can then be encapsulated.
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Booting root volumes

When the operating system is booted, the root file system and swap area must be
available for use before the vxconfigd daemon can load the VxVM configuration
or start any volumes. During system startup, the operating system must see the
rootvol and swapvol volumes as regular partitions so that it can access them as
ordinary disk partitions.
Due to this restriction, each of the rootvol and swapvol plexes must be created
from contiguous space on a disk that is mapped to a single partition. It is not possible
to stripe, concatenate or span the plex of a rootvol or swapvol volume that is used
for booting. Any mirrors of these plexes that are potentially bootable also cannot
be striped, concatenated or spanned.
For information on how to configure your system BIOS to boot from a disk other
than the default boot disk, refer to the documentation from your hardware vendor.
Boot-time volume restrictions

Volumes on the root disk differ from other volumes in that they have very specific
restrictions on their configuration:
The root volume (rootvol) must exist in the default disk group, bootdg. Although
other volumes named rootvol can be created in disk groups other than bootdg,
only the volume rootvol in bootdg can be used to boot the system.
The rootvol and swapvol volumes always have minor device numbers 0 and
1 respectively. Other volumes on the root disk do not have specific minor device
numbers.
Restricted mirrors of volumes on the root disk device have overlay partitions
created for them. An overlay partition is one that exactly includes the disk space
occupied by the restricted mirror. During boot, before the rootvol, varvol,
usrvol and swapvol volumes are fully configured, the default volume
configuration uses the overlay partition to access the data on the disk.
Although it is possible to add a striped mirror to a rootvol device for performance

reasons, you cannot stripe the primary plex or any mirrors of rootvol that may
be needed for system recovery or booting purposes if the primary plex fails.
rootvol and swapvol cannot be spanned or contain a primary plex with multiple
noncontiguous subdisks. You cannot grow or shrink any volume associated with
an encapsulated boot disk (rootvol, usrvol, varvol, optvol, swapvol, and
so on) because these map to a physical underlying partition on the disk and
must be contiguous. A workaround is to unencapsulate the boot disk, repartition
the boot disk as desired (growing or shrinking partitions as needed), and then
re-encapsulating.
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When mirroring parts of the boot disk, the disk being mirrored to must be large
enough to hold the data on the original plex, or mirroring may not work.
The volumes on the root disk cannot use dirty region logging (DRL).
In addition to these requirements, it is a good idea to have at least one contiguous,

(cylinder-aligned if appropriate) mirror for each of the volumes for root, usr, var,
opt and swap. This makes it easier to convert these from volumes back to regular
disk partitions (during an operating system upgrade, for example).
Creating redundancy for the root disk

You can create an active backup of the root disk, in case of a single disk failure.
Use the vxrootadm command to create a mirror of the booted root disk, and other
volumes in the root disk group.
To create a back-up root disk
Create a mirror with the vxrootadm addmirror command.

# vxrootadm [-v] [-Y] addmirror targetdisk
Creating an archived back-up root disk for disaster recovery

In addition to having an active backup of the root disk, you can keep an archived
back-up copy of the bootable root disk. Use the vxrootadm command to create a
snapshot of the booted root disk, which creates a mirror and breaks it off into a
separate disk group.
To create an archived back-up root disk
Add a disk to the booted root disk group.
Create a snapshot of the booted root disk.

# vxrootadm [-v] mksnap targetdisk targetdg
Archive the back-up root disk group for disaster recovery.
Encapsulating and mirroring the root disk

VxVM lets you mirror the root volume and other areas needed for booting onto
another disk. This makes it possible to recover from failure of your root disk by
replacing it with one of its mirrors.
Use the fdisk or sfdisk commands to obtain a printout of the root disk partition
table before you encapsulate the root disk. For more information, see the appropriate
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manual pages. You may need this information should you subsequently need to
recreate the original root disk.
See Restrictions on using rootability with Linux on page 680.
You can use the vxdiskadm command to encapsulate the root disk.
See Encapsulating a disk on page 673.
You can also use the vxencap command, as shown in this example where the root
disk is sda:
# vxencap -c -g diskgroup rootdisk=sda
where diskgroup must be the name of the current boot disk group. If no boot disk
group currently exists, one is created with the specified name. The name bootdg
is reserved as an alias for the name of the boot disk group, and cannot be used.
You must reboot the system for the changes to take effect.
Both the vxdiskadm and vxencap procedures for encapsulating the root disk also
update the /etc/fstab file and the boot loader configuration file
(/boot/grub/menu.lst or /etc/grub.conf (as appropriate for the platform) for
GRUB or /etc/lilo.conf for LILO):
Entries are changed in /etc/fstab for the rootvol, swapvol and other volumes
on the encapsulated root disk.
A special entry, vxvm_root, is added to the boot loader configuration file to allow
the system to boot from an encapsulated root disk.
The contents of the original /etc/fstab and boot loader configuration files are
saved in the files /etc/fstab.b4vxvm, /boot/grub/menu.lst.b4vxvm or
/etc/grub.conf.b4vxvm for GRUB, and /etc/lilo.conf.b4vxvm for LILO.
Warning: When modifying the /etc/fstab and the boot loader configuration files,
take care not to corrupt the entries that have been added by VxVM. This can prevent
your system from booting correctly.
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To mirror the root disk onto another disk after encapsulation
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Choose a disk to use for the mirror that is at least as large as the existing root
disk, whose geometry is seen by Linux to be the same as the existing root disk,
and which is not already in use by VxVM or any other subsystem (such as a
mounted partition or swap area). The disk should be visible to the Basic Input
Output System (BIOS) and to the bootloader of the operating system.
Select Mirror Volumes on a Disk from the vxdiskadm main menu to create
a mirror of the root disk. (These automatically invoke the vxrootmir command
if the mirroring operation is performed on the root disk.)
The disk that is used for the root mirror must not be under Volume Manager
control already.
Alternatively, to mirror all file systems on the root disk, run the following
command:
# vxrootmir mirror_da_name mirror_dm_name
mirror_da_name is the disk access name of the disk that is to mirror the root
disk, and mirror_dm_name is the disk media name that you want to assign to
the mirror disk. The alternate root disk is configured to allow the system to be
booted from it in the event that the primary root disk fails. For example, to mirror
the root disk, sda, onto disk sdb, and give this the disk name rootmir, you
would use the following command:
# vxrootmir sdb rootmir
The operations to set up the root disk mirror take some time to complete.
The following is example output from the vxprint command after the root disk
has been encapsulated and its mirror has been created (the TUTIL0 and PUTIL0
fields and the subdisk records are omitted for clarity):
Disk group: rootdg
TY NAME
dg rootdg
ASSOC
rootdg
KSTATE
-
LENGTH
-
PLOFFS
-
STATE ...
-
dm rootdisk
dm rootmir
sda
sdb
16450497
16450497
v rootvol
root
ENABLED
pl mirrootvol-01 rootvol ENABLED
pl rootvol-01
rootvol ENABLED
12337857
12337857
12337857
ACTIVE
ACTIVE
ACTIVE
4112640
ACTIVE
swapvol
swap
ENABLED
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pl mirswapvol-01 swapvol ENABLED

pl swapvol-01
swapvol ENABLED
4112640
4112640
ACTIVE
ACTIVE
Allocation of METADATA Subdisks During Root Disk

Encapsulation
METADATA subdisks are created during root disk encapsulation to protect partitioning
information. These subdisks are deleted automatically when a root disk is

unencapsulated.
The following example fdisk output shows the original partition table for a systems
root disk:
# fdisk -ul /dev/hda
Disk /dev/hda: 255 heads, 63 sectors, 2431 cylinders
Units = sectors of 1 * 512 bytes
Device Boot
Start
/dev/hda1
63
/dev/hda2
2104515
/dev/hda3
6329610
/dev/hda5
6329673
/dev/hda6
10522638
/dev/hda7
14715603
/dev/hda8
18908568
/dev/hda9
23101533
End
2104514
6297479
39054014
10522574
14715539
18908504
23101469
25205984
Blocks
1052226
2096482+
16362202+
2096451
2096451
2096451
2096451
1052226
Id
83
83
5
83
83
83
83
82
System
Linux
Linux
Extended
Linux
Linux
Linux
Linux
Linux swap
Notice that there is a gap between start of the extended partition (hda3) and the
start of the first logical partition (hda5). For the logical partitions (hda5 through hda9),
there are also gaps between the end of one logical partition and the start of the
next logical partition. These gaps contain metadata for partition information. Because
these metadata regions lie inside the public region, VxVM allocates subdisks over
them to prevent accidental allocation of this space to volumes.
After the root disk has been encapsulated, the output from the vxprint command
appears similar to the following:
Disk group: rootdg
TY
dg
dm
dm
NAME
rootdg
disk01
rootdisk
ASSOC
rootdg
sdh
hda
KSTATE
-
LENGTH
17765181
39053952
PLOFFS
-
STATE
-
TUTIL0
-
PUTIL0
-
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sd
sd
sd
sd
sd
sd
sd
meta-rootdisk05
meta-rootdisk06
meta-rootdisk07
meta-rootdisk08
meta-rootdisk09
meta-rootdisk10
rootdiskPriv
ENABLED
ENABLED
ENABLED
ENABLED
ENABLED
ENABLED
ENABLED
63
63
63
63
63
63
2049
METADATA
METADATA
METADATA
METADATA
METADATA
METADATA
PRIVATE
v bootvol
pl bootvol-01
sd rootdisk-07
fsgen
ENABLED
bootvol
ENABLED
bootvol-01 ENABLED
2104452
2104452
2104452
ACTIVE
ACTIVE
-
v homevol
pl homevol-01
sd rootdisk-05
fsgen
ENABLED
homevol
ENABLED
homevol-01 ENABLED
4192902
4192902
4192902
ACTIVE
ACTIVE
-
v optvol
pl optvol-01
sd rootdisk-04
fsgen
optvol
optvol-01
ENABLED
ENABLED
ENABLED
4192902
4192902
4192902
ACTIVE
ACTIVE
-
v rootvol
pl rootvol-01
sd rootdisk-02
root
ENABLED
rootvol
ENABLED
rootvol-01 ENABLED
4192902
4192902
4192902
ACTIVE
ACTIVE
-
v swapvol
pl swapvol-01
sd rootdisk-01
swap
ENABLED
swapvol
ENABLED
swapvol-01 ENABLED
2104452
2104452
2104452
ACTIVE
ACTIVE
-
v usrvol
pl usrvol-01
sd rootdisk-06
fsgen
usrvol
usrvol-01
ENABLED
ENABLED
ENABLED
4192965
4192965
4192965
ACTIVE
ACTIVE
-
v varvol
pl varvol-01
sd rootdisk-03
fsgen
varvol
varvol-01
ENABLED
ENABLED
ENABLED
4192902
4192902
4192902
ACTIVE
ACTIVE
-
The new partition table for the root disk appears similar to the following:
# fdisk -ul /dev/hda
Disk /dev/hda: 255 heads, 63 sectors, 2431 cylinders
Units = sectors of 1 * 512 bytes
Device Boot
/dev/hda1
Start
End
63 2104514
Blocks
1052226
Id
83
System
Linux
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/dev/hda2
/dev/hda3
/dev/hda4
/dev/hda5
/dev/hda6
/dev/hda7
/dev/hda8
/dev/hda9
/dev/hda10
2104515
6329610
63
6329673
10522638
14715603
18908568
23101533
39051966
6297479
39054014
39054014
10522574
14715539
18908504
23101469
25205984
39054014
2096482+
16362202+
19526976
2096451
2096451
2096451
2096451
1052226
1024+
83
5
7e
83
83
83
83
82
7f
Linux
Extended
Unknown
Linux
Linux
Linux
Linux
Linux swap
Unknown
In this example, primary partition hda4 and logical partition hda10 have been created
to represent the VxVM public and private regions respectively.
Upgrading the kernel on a root encapsulated system

OS vendors often release maintenance patches to their products to address security
issues and other minor product defects. They may require customers to regularly
apply these patches to conform with maintenance contracts or to be eligible for
vendor support. Prior to this release, it was not possible to install a kernel patch or
upgrade on a root encapsulated system: it was necessary to unencapsulate the
system, apply the upgrade, then reencapsulate the root disk. It is now possible to
upgrade the OS kernel on a root encapsulated system.
Note: The procedures in this section only apply to minor kernel upgrades or patches.
These procedures do not apply to a full upgrade of the Linux operating system.
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To upgrade the OS kernel on a root encapsulated system
Apply the minor upgrade or patch to the system.
After applying the upgrade, run the commands:

# . /etc/vx/modinst-vxvm
# upgrade_encapped_root
The above commands determine if the kernel upgrade can be applied to the
encapsulated system. If the upgrade is successful, the command displays the
following message:
The VxVM root encapsulation upgrade has succeeded.
Please reboot the machine to load the new kernel.
After the next reboot, the system restarts with the patched kernel and a VxVM
encapsulated root volume.
Some patches may be completely incompatible with the installed version of VxVM.
In this case the script fails, with the following message:
FATAL ERROR: Unencapsulate the root disk manually.
VxVM cannot re-encapsulate the upgraded system.
The upgrade script saves a system configuration file that can be used to boot the
system with the previous configuration. If the upgrade fails, follow the steps to
restore the previous configuration.
Note: The exact steps may vary depending on the operating system.
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To restore the previous configuration
Interrupt the GRuB bootloader at bootstrap time by pressing the space bar.
The system displays a series of potential boot configurations, named after the
various installed kernel versions and VxVM root encapsulation versions.
For example:
Red Hat Enterprise Linux Server (2.6.18-53.el5)
Red Hat Enterprise Linux Server (2.6.18-8.el5)
vxvm_root_backup
vxvm_root
Select the vxvm_root_backup option to boot the previous kernel version with
the VxVM encapsulated root disk.
To upgrade the OS kernel on a root encapsulated system using manual steps
If the upgrade script fails, you can manually unencapsulate the root disk to
allow it to boot.
See Unencapsulating the root disk on page 699.
Upgrade the kernel and reboot the system.
If the reboot succeeds, you can re-encapsulate and remirror the root disk.
See Encapsulating and mirroring the root disk on page 690.
However, after the next reboot, VxVM may not be able to run correctly, making
all VxVM volumes unavailable. To restore the VxVM volumes, you must remove
the kernel upgrade, as follows:
# rpm -e upgrade_kernel_package_name
For example:
# rpm -e kernel-2.6.18-53.el5

The vxrootadm command lets you make a bootable snapshot of an encapsulated
boot disk.
The vxrootadm command has the following format:
# vxrootadm [-v] [-g dg] [-s srcdisk] ... keyword arg ...
The mksnap keyword must have the following format:
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Rootability
# vxrootadm -s srcdisk mksnap destdisk newdg

vxrootadm includes the following options:
vxrootadm [-v ] [-D]
These are verbose and debug message

options and are optional.
vxrootadm [-g dg]
The disk group argument is optional.
vxrootadm -s srcdisk
Specifies the source disk.
See the vxrootadm(1m) manual page.
Creating a snapshot of an encapsulated boot disk

To create a snapshot of an encapsulated boot disk, use the vxrootadm command.
The target disk for the snapshot must be as large (or bigger) than the source disk
(boot disk). You must use a new disk group name to associate the target disk.
To create a snapshot of an encapsulated boot disk
Enter the following command:

# vxrootadm -s srcdisk [-g dg] mksnap destdisk newdg
For example:
# vxrootadm -s disk_0 -g rootdg mksnap disk_1 snapdg
In this example, disk_0 is the encapsulated boot disk, and rootdg is the
associate boot disk group. disk_1 is the target disk, and snapdg is the new
disk group name

You can use the vxunroot utility to remove rootability support from a system. This
makes root, swap, home and other file systems on the root disk directly accessible
through disk partitions, instead of through volume devices.
The vxunroot utility also makes the necessary configuration changes to allow the
system to boot without any dependency on VxVM.
Only the volumes that were present on the root disk when it was encapsulated can
be unencapsulated using vxunroot. Before running vxunroot, evacuate all other
volumes that were created on the root disk after it was encapsulated.
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Rootability
Do not remove the plexes on the root disk that correspond to the original disk
partitions.
Warning: This procedure requires a reboot of the system.
To remove rootability from a system
Use the vxplex command to remove all the plexes of the volumes rootvol,
swapvol, usr, var, opt and home on the disks other than the root disk.
For example, the following command removes the plexes mirrootvol-01 and
mirswapvol-01 that are configured on the disk rootmir:
# vxplex -g bootdg -o rm dis mirrootvol-01 mirswapvol-01
Run the vxunroot utility:

# vxunroot
vxunroot does not perform any conversion to disk partitions if any plexes
remain on other disks.

If the device naming scheme has changed since the root disk was encapsulated,
the vxunroot command fails with the following error:
VxVM vxunroot ERROR V-5-2-4101 The root disk name does not match
the name of the original disk that was encapsulated.
If this message displays, use the vxddladm assign names command to

regenerate the persistent device name for the encapsulated root disk, then
retry the vxunroot command.
See Regenerating persistent device names on page 266.
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32
Quotas
About Veritas File System quota limits
About quota files on Veritas File System
About Veritas File System quota commands
About quota checking with Veritas File System
Using Veritas File System quotas
About Veritas File System quota limits

Veritas File System (VxFS) supports user and group quotas. The quota system
limits the use of two principal resources of a file system: files and data blocks. For
each of these resources, you can assign quotas to individual users and groups to
limit their usage.
You can set the following kinds of limits for each of the two resources:
hard limit
An absolute limit that cannot be exceeded under any circumstances.
soft limit
Must be lower than the hard limit, and can be exceeded, but only for a
limited time. The time limit can be configured on a per-file system basis
only. The VxFS default limit is seven days.
Soft limits are typically used when a user must run an application that could generate
large temporary files. In this case, you can allow the user to exceed the quota limit
for a limited time. No allocations are allowed after the expiration of the time limit.
Use the vxedquota command to set limits.
See Using Veritas File System quotas on page 704.
Quotas
Although file and data block limits can be set individually for each user and group,
the time limits apply to the file system as a whole. The quota limit information is
associated with user and group IDs and is stored in a user or group quota file.
See About quota files on Veritas File System on page 702.
The quota soft limit can be exceeded when VxFS preallocates space to a file.
See About extent attributes on page 177.

A quotas file (named quotas) must exist in the root directory of a file system for
any of the quota commands to work. For group quotas to work, there must be a
quotas.grp or quotas.grp.64 file. The files in the file system's mount point are
referred to as the external quotas file. VxFS also maintains an internal quotas file
for its own use.
The quota administration commands read and write to the external quotas file to
obtain or change usage limits. VxFS uses the internal file to maintain counts of data
blocks and inodes used by each user. When quotas are turned on, the quota limits
are copied from the external quotas file into the internal quotas file. While quotas
are on, all the changes in the usage information and changes to quotas are
registered in the internal quotas file. When quotas are turned off, the contents of
the internal quotas file are copied into the external quotas file so that all data between
the two files is synchronized.
VxFS supports group quotas in addition to user quotas. Just as user quotas limit
file system resource (disk blocks and the number of inodes) usage on individual
users, group quotas specify and limit resource usage on a group basis. As with
user quotas, group quotas provide a soft and hard limit for file system resources.
If both user and group quotas are enabled, resource utilization is based on the most
restrictive of the two limits for a given user.
To distinguish between group and user quotas, VxFS quota commands use a -g
and -u option. The default is user quotas if neither option is specified. One exception
to this rule is when you specify the -o quota option as a mount command option.
In this case, both user and group quotas are enabled. Support for group quotas
also requires a separate group quotas file. The VxFS group quota file is named
quotas.grp or quotas.grp.64. The VxFS user quotas file is named quotas or
quotas.64. This name was used to distinguish it from the quotas.user file used
by other file systems under the operating system.
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Quotas

Note: The quotacheck command is an exceptionVxFS does not support an
equivalent command.
See About quota checking with Veritas File System on page 704.
Quota support for various file systems is implemented using the generic code
provided by the Linux kernel. However, VxFS does not use this generic interface.
VxFS instead supports a similar set of commands that work only for VxFS file
systems.
VxFS supports the following quota-related commands:
vxedquota
Edits quota limits for users and groups. The limit changes made by
vxedquota are reflected both in the internal quotas file and the external
quotas file.
vxrepquota
Provides a summary of quotas and disk usage.
vxquot
Provides file ownership and usage summaries.
vxquota
Views quota limits and usage.
vxquotaon
Turns quotas on for a mounted VxFS file system.
vxquotaoff
Turns quotas off for a mounted VxFS file system.
The vxquota, vxrepquota, vxquot, and vxedquota commands support the -H

option for human friendly input and output. When the -H option is used, the storage
size is displayed in the following humanfriendly units: bytes (B), kilobytes (KB),
megabytes (MB), gigabytes (GB), terabyte (TB), petabytes (PB), and exabytes
(EB). The quota soft and hard limits, quota usage, and the total storage consumed
by a specific user or group or all users or groups can be obtained in human-friendly
units using the -H option.
In addition to these commands, the VxFS mount command supports a special mount
option (-o quota|usrquota|grpquota), which can be used to turn on quotas at
mount time. You can also selectively enable or disable user or group quotas on a
VxFS file system during remount or on a mounted file system.
For additional information on the quota commands, see the vxedquota(1M),
vxrepquota(1M), vxquot(1M), vxquota(1M), vxquotaon(1M), and vxquotaoff(1M)
manual pages.
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Quotas
Note: When VxFS file systems are exported via NFS, the VxFS quota commands
on the NFS client cannot query or edit quotas. You can use the VxFS quota
commands on the server to query or edit quotas.

The standard practice with most quota implementations is to mount all file systems
and then run a quota check on each one. The quota check reads all the inodes on
disk and calculates the usage for each user and group. This can be time consuming,
and because the file system is mounted, the usage can change while quotacheck
is running.
VxFS does not support a quotacheck command. With VxFS, quota checking is
performed automatically (if necessary) at the time quotas are turned on. A quota
check is necessary if the file system has changed with respect to the usage
information as recorded in the internal quotas file. This happens only if the file
system was written with quotas turned off, or if there was structural damage to the
file system that required a full file system check.
See the fsck_vxfs(1M) manual page.
A quota check generally reads information for each inode on disk and rebuilds the
internal quotas file. It is possible that while quotas were not on, quota limits were
changed by the system administrator. These changes are stored in the external
quotas file. As part of enabling quotas processing, quota limits are read from the
external quotas file into the internal quotas file.

The Veritas File System (VxFS) quota commands are used to perform the following
quota functions:
Turning on Veritas File System quotas
Turning on Veritas File System quotas at mount time
Editing Veritas File System quotas
Modifying Veritas File System quota time limits
Viewing Veritas File System disk quotas and usage
Displaying blocks owned by users or groups
Turning off Veritas File System quotas
Support for 64-bit Quotas
704
Quotas
Turning on Veritas File System quotas

To use the quota functionality on a file system, quotas must be turned on. You can
turn quotas on at mount time or after a file system is mounted.
Note: Before turning on quotas, the root directory of the file system must contain a
file for user quotas named quotas, and a file for group quotas named quotas.grp
owned by root.
64-bit quota is supported on disk layout Version 10. The quota file names are
quotas.64 and quotas.grp.64.
To turn on quotas
To turn on user and group quotas for a VxFS file system, enter:
# vxquotaon /mount_point
To turn on only user quotas for a VxFS file system, enter:

# vxquotaon -u /mount_point
To turn on only group quotas for a VxFS file system, enter:

# vxquotaon -g /mount_point
Turning on Veritas File System quotas at mount time

Quotas can be turned on with the mount command when you mount a file system.
To turn on quotas at mount time
To turn on user or group quotas for a file system at mount time, enter:
# mount -t vxfs -o quota special /mount_point
where special is aVxFS block special device.
To turn on only user quotas, enter:

# mount -t vxfs -o usrquota special /mount_point
To turn on only group quotas, enter:

# mount -t vxfs -o grpquota special /mount_point
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Quotas
Note: "special" signifies a VxFS block special device.
Editing Veritas File System quotas

You can set up user and group quotas using the vxedquota command. You must
have superuser privileges to edit quotas.
vxedquota creates a temporary file for the given user; this file contains on-disk
quotas for each mounted file system that has a quotas file. It is not necessary that
quotas be turned on for vxedquota to work. However, the quota limits are applicable
only after quotas are turned on for a given file system.
To edit quotas
Specify the -u option to edit the quotas of one or more users specified by
username:
# vxedquota [-u] username
Editing the quotas of one or more users is the default behavior if the -u option
is not specified.
Specify the -g option to edit the quotas of one or more groups specified by
groupname:
# vxedquota -g groupname
Modifying Veritas File System quota time limits

The soft and hard limits can be modified or assigned values with the vxedquota
command. For any user or group, usage can never exceed the hard limit after
quotas are turned on.
Modified time limits apply to the entire file system and cannot be set selectively for
each user or group.
To modify time limits
Specify the -t option to modify time limits for any user:

# vxedquota [-u] -t
Specify the -g and -t options to modify time limits for any group:
# vxedquota -g -t
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Quotas
Viewing Veritas File System disk quotas and usage

Use the vxquota command to view a user's or group's disk quotas and usage on
VxFS file systems.
To display disk quotas and usage
To display a user's quotas and disk usage on all mounted VxFS file systems
where the quotas file exists, enter:
# vxquota -v [-u] username
To display a group's quotas and disk usage on all mounted VxFS file systems
where the quotas.grp file exists, enter:
# vxquota -v -g groupname
Displaying blocks owned by users or groups

Use the vxquot command to display the number of blocks owned by each user or
group in a file system.
To display the number of blocks owned by users or groups
To display the number of files and the space owned by each user, enter:
# vxquot [-u] -f filesystem
To display the number of files and the space owned by each group, enter:
# vxquot -g -f filesystem
Turning off Veritas File System quotas

Use the vxquotaoff command to turn off quotas.
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Quotas
To turn off quotas
To turn off quotas for a mounted file system, enter:

# vxquotaoff /mount_point
To turn off only user quotas for a VxFS file system, enter:
# vxquotaoff -u /mount_point
To turn off only group quotas for a VxFS file system, enter:
# vxquotaoff -g /mount_point
Support for 64-bit Quotas

Starting in release 6.1, 64-bit quotas are supported on disk layout Version 10. To
use this feature the existing file systems need to be upgrade to disk layout Version
10 using the vxupgrade command.
See vxupgrade(1M) man page.
As for 32-bit quotas, this continues to be supported on disk layout Version 9 or
earlier. The same quota commands can be used for both 32-bit and 64-bit quotas.
As for 64-bit quotas, there are two new quotas files. For group quotas the file name
is quotas.grp.64 and for user quotas the file name is quotas.64. These files will
be created on each file system after the disk layout version upgrade is completed.
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Chapter
33
File Change Log

About Veritas File System File Change Log
About the Veritas File System File Change Log file
Veritas File System File Change Log administrative interface
Veritas File System File Change Log programmatic interface
Summary of Veritas File System File Change Log API functions
About Veritas File System File Change Log

The VxFS File Change Log (FCL) tracks changes to files and directories in a file
system.
Applications that typically use the FCL are usually required to:
scan an entire file system or a subset
discover changes since the last scan
These applications may include: backup utilities, webcrawlers, search engines, and
replication programs.
Note: The FCL tracks when the data has changed and records the change type,
but does not track the actual data changes. It is the responsibility of the application
to examine the files to determine the changed data.
FCL functionality is a separately licensable feature.
See the Symantec Storage Foundation Release Notes.
File Change Log


File Change Log records file system changes such as creates, links, unlinks,
renaming, data appended, data overwritten, data truncated, extended attribute
modifications, holes punched, and miscellaneous file property updates.
FCL stores changes in a sparse file in the file system namespace. The FCL file is
located in mount_point/lost+found/changelog. The FCL file behaves like a
regular file, but some operations are prohibited. The standard system calls open(2),
lseek(2), read(2) and close(2) can access the data in the FCL, while the write(2),
mmap(2) and rename(2) calls are not allowed.
Warning: Although some standard system calls are currently supported, the FCL
file might be pulled out of the namespace in future VxFS release and these system
calls may no longer work. It is recommended that all new applications be developed
using the programmatic interface.
The FCL log file contains both the information about the FCL, which is stored in the
FCL superblock, and the changes to files and directories in the file system, which
is stored as FCL records.
See Veritas File System File Change Log programmatic interface on page 713.
In the 4.1 release, the structure of the File Change Log file was exposed through
the /opt/VRTS/include/sys/fs/fcl.h header file. In this release, the internal
structure of the FCL file is opaque. The recommended mechanism to access the
FCL is through the API described by the /opt/VRTSfssdk/6.1/include/vxfsutil.h
header file.
The /opt/VRTS/include/sys/fs/fcl.h header file is included in this release to
ensure that applications accessing the FCL with the 4.1 header file do not break.
New applications should use the new FCL API described in
/opt/VRTSfssdk/6.1/include/vxfsutil.h. Existing applications should also be
modified to use the new FCL API.
To provide backward compatibility for the existing applications, this release supports
multiple FCL versions. Users have the flexibility of specifying the FCL version for
new FCLs. The default FCL version is 4.
See the fcladm(1M) man page.
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File Change Log

Veritas File System File Change Log administrative

interface
The File Change Log (FCL) can be set up and tuned through the fcladm and
vxtunefs VxFS administrative commands.
See the fcladm(1M) and vxtunefs(1M) manual pages.
The FCL keywords for fcladm are as follows:
clear
Disables the recording of the audit, open, close, and statistical

events after it has been set.
dump
Creates a regular file image of the FCL file that can be downloaded
to an off-host processing system. This file has a different format
than the FCL file.
on
Activates the FCL on a mounted file system. VxFS 5.0 and later
releases support either FCL Versions 3 or 4. If no version is
specified, the default is Version 4. Use fcladm on to specify the
version.
print
Prints the contents of the FCL file starting from the specified offset.
restore
Restores the FCL file from the regular file image of the FCL file
created by the dump keyword.
rm
Removes the FCL file. You must first deactivate the FCL with the
off keyword, before you can remove the FCL file.
set
Enables the recording of events specified by the 'eventlist' option.

See the fcladm(1M) manual page.
state
Writes the current state of the FCL to the standard output.
sync
Brings the FCL to a stable state by flushing the associated data of

an FCL recording interval.
The FCL tunable parameters for vxtunefs are as follows:
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File Change Log

fcl_keeptime
Specifies the duration in seconds that FCL records stay in the FCL
file before they can be purged. The first records to be purged are
the oldest ones, which are located at the beginning of the file.
Additionally, records at the beginning of the file can be purged if
allocation to the FCL file exceeds fcl_maxalloc bytes. The
default value of fcl_keeptime is 0. If the fcl_maxalloc
parameter is set, records are purged from the FCL file if the amount
of space allocated to the FCL file exceeds fcl_maxalloc. This
is true even if the elapsed time the records have been in the log is
less than the value of fcl_keeptime.
fcl_maxalloc
Specifies the maximum number of spaces in bytes to be allocated

to the FCL file. When the space allocated exceeds fcl_maxalloc,
a hole is punched at the beginning of the file. As a result, records
are purged and the first valid offset (fc_foff) is updated. In
addition, fcl_maxalloc may be violated if the oldest record has
not reached fcl_keeptime.
The minimum value of fcl_maxalloc is 4 MB. The default value
is fs_size/33.
fcl_winterval
Specifies the time in seconds that must elapse before the FCL
records an overwrite, extending write, or a truncate. This helps to
reduce the number of repetitive records in the FCL. The
fcl_winterval timeout is per inode. If an inode happens to go
out of cache and returns, its write interval is reset. As a result, there
could be more than one write record for that file in the same write
interval. The default value is 3600 seconds.
fcl_ointerval
The time interval in seconds within which subsequent opens of a

file do not produce an additional FCL record. This helps to reduce
the number of repetitive records logged in the FCL file. If the tracking
of access information is also enabled, a subsequent file open even
within the fcl_ointerval may produce a record, if it is opened
by a different user. Similarly, if the inode is bumped out of cache,
this may also produce more than one record within the same open
interval.
The default value is 600 sec.
Either or both fcl_maxalloc and fcl_keeptime must be set to activate the FCL
feature. The following are examples of using the fcladm command.
To activate FCL for a mounted file system, type the following:
# fcladm on mount_point
To deactivate the FCL for a mounted file system, type the following:
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File Change Log

# fcladm off mount_point
To remove the FCL file for a mounted file system, on which FCL must be turned
off, type the following:
# fcladm rm mount_point
To obtain the current FCL state for a mounted file system, type the following:
# fcladm state mount_point
To enable tracking of the file opens along with access information with each event
in the FCL, type the following:
# fcladm set fileopen,accessinfo mount_point
To stop tracking file I/O statistics in the FCL, type the following:
# fcladm clear filestats mount_point
Print the on-disk FCL super-block in text format to obtain information about the FCL
file by using offset 0. Because the FCL on-disk super-block occupies the first block
of the FCL file, the first and last valid offsets into the FCL file can be determined
by reading the FCL super-block and checking the fc_foff field. Enter:
# fcladm print 0 mount_point
To print the contents of the FCL in text format, of which the offset used must be
32-byte aligned, enter:
# fcladm print offset mount_point
Veritas File System File Change Log programmatic

interface
VxFS provides an enhanced API to simplify reading and parsing the FCL file in two
ways:
Simplified reading
The API simplifies user tasks by reducing additional code needed

to parse FCL file entries. In 4.1, to obtain event information such
as a remove or link, the user was required to write additional code
to get the name of the removed or linked file. In this release, the
API allows the user to directly read an assembled record. The API
also allows the user to specify a filter to indicate a subset of the
event records of interest.
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File Change Log

Backward compatibility Providing API access for the FCL feature allows backward
compatibility for applications. The API allows applications to parse
the FCL file independent of the FCL layout changes. Even if the
hidden disk layout of the FCL changes, the API automatically
translates the returned data to match the expected output record.
As a result, the user does not need to modify or recompile the
application due to changes in the on-disk FCL layout.
The following sample code fragment reads the FCL superblock, checks that the
state of the FCL is VX_FCLS_ON, issues a call to vxfs_fcl_sync to obtain a finishing
offset to read to, determines the first valid offset in the FCL file, then reads the
entries in 8K chunks from this offset. The section process fcl entries is what an
application developer must supply to process the entries in the FCL file.
#include <stdint.h>
#include <stdio.h>
#include <stdlib.h>
#include <sys/types.h>
#include <sys/fcntl.h>
#include <errno.h>
#include <fcl.h>
#include <vxfsutil.h>
#define FCL_READSZ 8192
char* fclname = "/mnt/lost+found/changelog";
int read_fcl(fclname) char* fclname;
{
struct fcl_sb fclsb;
uint64_t off, lastoff;
size_t size;
char buf[FCL_READSZ], *bufp = buf;
int fd;
int err = 0;
if ((fd = open(fclname, O_RDONLY)) < 0) {
return ENOENT;
}
if ((off = lseek(fd, 0, SEEK_SET)) != 0) {
close(fd);
return EIO;
}
size = read(fd, &fclsb, sizeof (struct fcl_sb));
if (size < 0) {
close(fd);
return EIO;
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File Change Log

}
if (fclsb.fc_state == VX_FCLS_OFF) {
close(fd);
return 0;
}
if (err = vxfs_fcl_sync(fclname, &lastoff)) {
close(fd);
return err;
}
if ((off = lseek(fd, off_t, uint64_t)) != uint64_t) {
close(fd);
return EIO;
}
while (off < lastoff) {
if ((size = read(fd, bufp, FCL_READSZ)) <= 0) {
close(fd);
return errno;
}
/* process fcl entries */
off += size;
}
close(fd);
return 0;
}
Summary of Veritas File System File Change Log API

functions
The following is a brief summary of File Change Log API functions:
vxfs_fcl_close()
Closes the FCL file and cleans up resources associated with the
handle.
vxfs_fcl_cookie()
Returns an opaque structure that embeds the current FCL activation

time and the current offset. This cookie can be saved and later
passed to vxfs_fcl_seek() function to continue reading from
where the application last stopped.
vxfs_fcl_getinfo() Returns information such as the state and version of the FCL file.
vxfs_fcl_open()
Opens the FCL file and returns a handle that can be used for further
operations.
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File Change Log

vxfs_fcl_read()
Reads FCL records of interest into a buffer specified by the user.
vxfs_fcl_seek()
Extracts data from the specified cookie and then seeks to the
specified offset.
vxfs_fcl_seektime() Seeks to the first record in the FCL after the specified time.
716
Section
Reference
Appendix A. Reverse path name lookup
Appendix B. Tunable parameters
Appendix C. Veritas File System disk layout
Appendix D. Command reference
Appendix
Reverse path name lookup

This appendix includes the following topics:
About reverse path name lookup

The reverse path name lookup feature obtains the full path name of a file or directory
from the inode number of that file or directory. The inode number is provided as an
argument to the vxlsino administrative command, or the vxfs_inotopath_gen(3)
application programming interface library function.
The reverse path name lookup feature can be useful for a variety of applications,
such as for clients of the VxFS File Change Log feature, in backup and restore
utilities, and for replication products. Typically, these applications store information
by inode numbers because a path name for a file or directory can be very long,
thus the need for an easy method of obtaining a path name.
An inode is a unique identification number for each file in a file system. An inode
contains the data and metadata associated with that file, but does not include the
file name to which the inode corresponds. It is therefore relatively difficult to
determine the name of a file from an inode number. The ncheck command provides
a mechanism for obtaining a file name from an inode identifier by scanning each
directory in the file system, but this process can take a long period of time. The
VxFS reverse path name lookup feature obtains path names relatively quickly.
Note: Because symbolic links do not constitute a path to the file, the reverse path
name lookup feature cannot track symbolic links to files.
Because of the possibility of errors with processes renaming or unlinking and creating
new files, it is advisable to perform a lookup or open with the path name and verify
that the inode number matches the path names obtained.
Reverse path name lookup

See the vxlsino(1M), vxfs_inotopath_gen(3), and vxfs_inotopath(3) manual

pages.
719
Appendix
Tunable parameters
About tuning Symantec Storage Foundation
Tuning the VxFS file system
DMP tunable parameters
Methods to change Symantec Dynamic Multi-Pathing tunable parameters
Tunable parameters for VxVM
About tuning Symantec Storage Foundation

Symantec Storage Foundation (SF) is widely used in a range of environments where
performance plays a critical role. SF has a number of tunable parameters and
configuration options that are meant to enable customization of the stack for the
particular environment and workload in which SF is used. This guide helps
administrators understand how some of these options affect performance, and
provides guidelines for tuning the options.
This guide focuses on the important tunable parameters for SF. For good
performance for a workload, you might also need to tune other entities of the stack,
such as the operating system, database, storage network, or disk array. While this
guide discusses some of these parameters briefly, you should refer to the
documentation from the entity's vendor for more information on how to tune these
entities.

This section describes the following kernel tunable parameters in VxFS:
Tunable parameters
Tuning inode table size
Tuning performance optimization of inode allocation
Tuning file system parallel direct I/O
Veritas Volume Manager maximum I/O size
Tuning inode table size

VxFS caches inodes in an inode table. The tunable for VxFS to determine the
number of entries in its inode table is vxfs_ninode.
VxFS uses the value of vxfs_ninode in /etc/modprobe.conf as the number of
entries in the VxFS inode table. By default, the file system uses a value of
vxfs_ninode, which is computed based on system memory size. To increase the
value, make the following change in /etc/modprobe.conf and reboot:
options vxfs vxfs_ninode=new_value
The new parameters take affect after a reboot or after the VxFS module is unloaded
and reloaded. The VxFS module can be loaded using the modprobe command or
automatically when a file system is mounted.
See the modprobe(8) manual page.
Note: New parameters in the /etc/modprobe.conf file are not read by the insmod
vxfs command.
Tuning performance optimization of inode allocation

The delicache_enable tunable parameter specifies whether performance
optimization of inode allocation and inode reuse during a new file creation is turned
on or off. The delicache_enable tunable is not supported for cluster file systems.
You can specify the following values fordelicache_enable:
0 Disables delicache optimization.
1 Enables delicache optimization.
The default value of delicache_enable is 1 for local mounts and 0 for cluster file
systems.
721
Tunable parameters
Tuning file system parallel direct I/O

OnVxFS, each iovec is performed synchronously for the readv(2) call and writev(2)
call. For both readv(2) and writev(2), the Single Unix Specification states, "The
readv/writev() function shall always fill an area completely before proceeding to the
next." However, for direct I/O, Linux ignores this requirement and submits a number
of iovecs in parallel before waiting for completion. Veritas File System (VxFS)
performs parallel direct I/O for both reads and writes, which improves VxFS
performance. This support for parallel direct I/O can be enabled by setting the VxFS
module load tunable vx_parallel_dio.
To enable parallel direct I/O, make the following change in the /etc/modprobe.conf
file and reboot the system:
options vxfs vx_parallel_dio=1
You can enable or disable the partitioned directories feature by setting the
pdir_enable tunable. Specifying a value of 1 enables partitioned directories, while
specifying a value of 0 disables partitioned directories. The default value is 1.
You can set the pdir_threshold tunable to specify the threshold value in terms of
directory size in bytes beyond which VxFS will partition a directory if you enabled
partitioned directories. The default value is 32768.
The -d option of the fsadm command removes empty hidden directories from
partitioned directories. If you disabled partitioned directories, the fsadm -d command
also converts partitioned directories to regular directories.
The partitioned directories feature operates only on disk layout Version 8 or later
file systems.
Warning: If the directories are huge, conversion between partitioned directories and
regular directories or vice versa needs some time. If you enable the feature when
the root directory already contains a large number of files, the conversion can occur
at file system mount time, and can cause the mount to take a long time. Symantec
recommends that the conversion is performed when directories are slightly or not
populated.
Veritas Volume Manager maximum I/O size

When using VxFS with Veritas Volume Manager (VxVM), VxVM by default breaks
up I/O requests larger than 256K. When using striping, to optimize performance,
722
Tunable parameters
the file system issues I/O requests that are up to a full stripe in size. If the stripe
size is larger than 256K, those requests are broken up.
To avoid undesirable I/O breakup, you can increase the maximum I/O size by
changing the value of the vol_maxio parameter in the /etc/modprobe.conf file.
Native asynchronous I/O with cloned processes

You can enable or disable native asynchronous I/O with cloned processes by setting
the vx_allow_cloned_naio tunable. Specifying a value of 1 enables native
asynchronous I/O with cloned processes, while specifying a value of 0 disables
native asynchronous I/O with cloned processes. The default value is 0.
Processes that are cloned by using the CLONE_VM flag share an address space with
their parent. When such threads issue native asynchronous I/O by using the
io_submit() call, the system can panic if those threads return and exit before the
I/O completes. You can avoid this issue by setting the vx_allow_cloned_naio
tunable to 0, which causes such threads to issue the I/O synchronously.
Well-behaved applications that do not have threads exiting with pending
asynchronous I/O do not have this restriction. When using such applications, such
as Sybase, you can set the vx_allow_cloned_naio tunable to 1, which avoids the
performance impact of such threads having asynchronous I/O become synchronous.

DMP provides various parameters that you can use to tune your environment.
Table B-1 shows the DMP parameters that can be tuned. You can set a tunable
parameter online, without a reboot.
Table B-1
DMP parameters that are tunable
Parameter
Description
dmp_cache_open
If this parameter is set to on, the first open of a device

is cached. This caching enhances the performance of
device discovery by minimizing the overhead that is
caused by subsequent opens on the device. If this
parameter is set to off, caching is not performed.
The default value is on.
723
Tunable parameters
Table B-1
DMP parameters that are tunable (continued)
Parameter
Description
dmp_daemon_count
The number of kernel threads that are available for

servicing path error handling, path restoration, and
other DMP administrative tasks.
The default number of threads is 10.
dmp_delayq_interval
How long DMP should wait before retrying I/O after an

array fails over to a standby path. Some disk arrays
are not capable of accepting I/O requests immediately
after failover.
The default value is 15 seconds.
dmp_fast_recovery
Whether DMP should try to obtain SCSI error

information directly from the HBA interface. Setting the
value to on can potentially provide faster error
recovery, if the HBA interface supports the error enquiry
feature. If this parameter is set to off, the HBA
interface is not used.
The default setting is on.
dmp_health_time
DMP detects intermittently failing paths, and prevents

I/O requests from being sent on them. The value of
dmp_health_time represents the time in seconds
for which a path must stay healthy. If a paths state
changes back from enabled to disabled within this time
period, DMP marks the path as intermittently failing,
and does not re-enable the path for I/O until
dmp_path_age seconds elapse.
A value of 0 prevents DMP from detecting intermittently
failing paths.
724
Tunable parameters
Table B-1
Parameter
Description
dmp_log_level
The level of detail that is displayed for DMP console

messages. The following level values are defined:
1 Displays all DMP log messages that existed in
releases before 5.0.
2 Displays level 1 messages plus messages that
relate to path or disk addition or removal, SCSI errors,
IO errors and DMP node migration.
3 Displays level 1 and 2 messages plus messages
that relate to path throttling, suspect path, idle path and
insane path logic.
4 Displays level 1, 2 and 3 messages plus messages
that relate to setting or changing attributes on a path
and tunable related changes.
The default value is 1.
dmp_low_impact_probe
Determines if the path probing by restore daemon is

optimized or not. Set it to on to enable optimization
and off to disable. Path probing is optimized only
when restore policy is check_disabled or during
check_disabled phase of check_periodic policy.
725
Tunable parameters
Table B-1
Parameter
Description
dmp_lun_retry_timeout
Specifies a retry period for handling transient errors

that are not handled by the HBA and the SCSI driver.
In general, no such special handling is required.
Therefore, the default value of the
dmp_lun_retry_timeout tunable parameter is 0.
When all paths to a disk fail, DMP fails the I/Os to the
application. The paths are checked for connectivity
only once.
In special cases when DMP needs to handle the
transient errors, configure DMP to delay failing the I/Os
to the application for a short interval. Set the
dmp_lun_retry_timeout tunable parameter to a
non-zero value to specify the interval. If all of the paths
to the LUN fail and I/Os need to be serviced, then DMP
probes the paths every five seconds for the specified
interval. If the paths are restored within the interval,
DMP detects this and retries the I/Os. DMP does not
fail I/Os to a disk with all failed paths until the specified
dmp_lun_retry_timeout interval or until the I/O
succeeds on one of the paths, whichever happens first.
dmp_monitor_fabric
Determines if DMP should register for HBA events from

VMkernel. These events improve the failover
performance by proactively avoiding the I/O paths that
have impending failure.
The default setting is off for releases before 5.0 that
have been patched to support this DDL feature. The
default setting is on for 5.0 and later releases.
726
Tunable parameters
Table B-1
Parameter
Description
dmp_monitor_osevent
Determines whether the Event Source daemon (vxesd)

monitors operating system events such as
reconfiguration operations.
If this parameter is set to on, vxesd monitors
operations such as attaching operating system devices.
If this parameter is set to off, vxesd does not monitor
operating system operations. When DMP co-exists
with EMC PowerPath, Symantec recommends setting
this parameter to off to avoid any issues.
The default setting is on, unless EMC PowerPath is
installed. If you install DMP on a system that already
has PowerPath installed, DMP sets the
dmp_monitor_osevent to off.
dmp_monitor_ownership
Determines whether the ownership monitoring is

enabled for ALUA arrays. When this tunable is set to
on, DMP polls the devices for LUN ownership changes.
The polling interval is specified by the
dmp_restore_interval tunable. The default value is on.
When the dmp_monitor_ownership tunable is off,
DMP does not poll the devices for LUN ownership
changes.
dmp_native_support
Determines whether DMP will do multi-pathing for

native devices.
Set the tunable to on to have DMP do multi-pathing
for native devices.
When Dynamic Multi-Pathing is installed as a
component of Storage Foundation, the default value
is off.
When Symantec Dynamic Multi-Pathing is installed as
a stand-alone product, the default value is on.
dmp_path_age
The time for which an intermittently failing path needs

to be monitored as healthy before DMP again tries to
schedule I/O requests on it.
A value of 0 prevents DMP from detecting intermittently
failing paths.
727
Tunable parameters
Table B-1
Parameter
Description
dmp_pathswitch_blks_shift
The default number of contiguous I/O blocks that are

sent along a DMP path to an array before switching to
the next available path. The value is expressed as the
integer exponent of a power of 2; for example 9
represents 512 blocks.
The default value is 9. In this case, 512 blocks (256k)
of contiguous I/O are sent over a DMP path before
switching. For intelligent disk arrays with internal data
caches, better throughput may be obtained by
increasing the value of this tunable. For example, for
the HDS 9960 A/A array, the optimal value is between
15 and 17 for an I/O activity pattern that consists mostly
of sequential reads or writes.
This parameter only affects the behavior of the
balanced I/O policy. A value of 0 disables
multi-pathing for the policy unless the vxdmpadm
command is used to specify a different partition size
for an array.
dmp_probe_idle_lun
If DMP statistics gathering is enabled, set this tunable

to on (default) to have the DMP path restoration thread
probe idle LUNs. Set this tunable to off to turn off this
feature. (Idle LUNs are VM disks on which no I/O
requests are scheduled.) The value of this tunable is
only interpreted when DMP statistics gathering is
enabled. Turning off statistics gathering also disables
idle LUN probing.
dmp_probe_threshold
If the dmp_low_impact_probe is turned on,

dmp_probe_threshold determines the number of paths
to probe before deciding on changing the state of other
paths in the same subpath failover group.
728
Tunable parameters
Table B-1
Parameter
Description
dmp_restore_cycles
If the DMP restore policy is check_periodic, the

number of cycles after which the check_all policy
is called.
See Configuring DMP path restoration policies
on page 247.
dmp_restore_interval
The interval attribute specifies how often the path

restoration thread examines the paths. Specify the time
in seconds.
The value of this tunable can also be set using the
vxdmpadm start restore command.
on page 247.
dmp_restore_policy
The DMP restore policy, which can be set to one of

the following values:
check_all
check_alternate
check_disabled
check_periodic
The default value is check_disabled

The value of this tunable can also be set using the
vxdmpadm start restore command.
on page 247.
729
Tunable parameters
Table B-1
Parameter
Description
dmp_restore_state
If this parameter is set to enabled, it enables the path

restoration thread to be started.
on page 247.
If this parameter is set to disabled, it stops and
disables the path restoration thread.
If this parameter is set to stopped, it stops the path
restoration thread until the next device discovery cycle.
The default is enabled.
See Stopping the DMP path restoration thread
on page 248.
dmp_retry_count
When I/O fails on a path with a path busy error, DMP

marks the path as busy and avoids using it for the next
15 seconds. If a path reports a path busy error for
dmp_retry_count number of times consecutively, DMP
marks the path as failed. The default value of
dmp_retry_count is 5.
dmp_scsi_timeout
Determines the timeout value to be set for any SCSI

command that is sent via DMP. If the HBA does not
receive a response for a SCSI command that it has
sent to the device within the timeout period, the SCSI
command is returned with a failure error code.
dmp_sfg_threshold
Determines the minimum number of paths that should

be failed in a failover group before DMP starts
suspecting other paths in the same failover group. The
value of 0 disables the failover logic based on subpath
failover groups.
dmp_stat_interval
The time interval between gathering DMP statistics.

The default and minimum value are 1 second.
730
Tunable parameters
Methods to change Symantec Dynamic Multi-Pathing

tunable parameters
Symantec Dynamic Multi-Pathing (DMP) provides a variety of parameters that you
can use to tune your configuration.
Change the DMP tunable parameters with one of the following methods:
Use the vxdmpadm settune command to
display or modify the values.
See Changing the values of DMP parameters

with the vxdmpadm settune command line
on page 731.
Use the template method of the vxdmpadm

command.
See About tuning Symantec Dynamic

Multi-Pathing (DMP) with templates
on page 731.
Changing the values of DMP parameters with the vxdmpadm settune

command line
To set a DMP timable parameter, use the following command:
# vxdmpadm settune dmp_tunable=value
To display the values of the DMP tunable parameters, use the following command:
# vxdmpadm gettune [dmp_tunable]
You can also use the template method to view or change DMP tunable parameters.
See About tuning Symantec Dynamic Multi-Pathing (DMP) with templates
on page 731.
About tuning Symantec Dynamic Multi-Pathing (DMP) with templates

Symantec Dynamic Multi-Pathing has multiple tunable parameters and attributes
that you can configure for optimal performance. DMP provides a template method
to update several tunable parameters and attributes with a single operation. The
template represents a full or partial DMP configuration, showing the values of the
parameters and attributes of the host.
To view and work with the tunable parameters, you can dump the configuration
values of the DMP tunable parameters to a file. Edit the parameters and attributes,
if required. Then, load the template file to a host to update all of the values in a
single operation.
731
Tunable parameters
You can load the configuration file to the same host, or to another similar host. The
template method is useful for the following scenarios:
Configure multiple similar hosts with the optimal performance tuning values.
Configure one host for optimal performance. After you have configured the host,
dump the tunable parameters and attributes to a template file. You can then
load the template file to another host with similar requirements. Symantec
recommends that the hosts that use the same configuration template have the
same operating system and similar I/O requirements.
Define multiple specialized templates to handle different I/O load requirements.

When the load changes on a host, you can load a different template for the best
performance. This strategy is appropriate for predictable, temporary changes
in the I/O load. As the system administrator, after you define the system's I/O
load behavior, you can customize tuning templates for particular loads. You can
then automate the tuning, since there is a single load command that you can
use in scripts or cron jobs.
At any time, you can reset the configuration, which reverts the values of the tunable
parameters and attributes to the DMP default values.
You can manage the DMP configuration file with the vxdmpadm config commands.
See the vxdmpadm(1m) man page.
DMP tuning templates

The template mechanism enables you to tune DMP parameters and attributes by
dumping the configuration values to a file, or to standard output.
DMP supports tuning the following types of information with template files:
DMP tunable parameters.
DMP attributes defined for an enclosure, array name, or array type.
Symantec naming scheme parameters.
The template file is divided into sections, as follows:

DMP Tunables
Applied to all enclosures and arrays.
Namingscheme
Applied to all enclosures and arrays.
Arraytype
Use to customize array types. Applied to all

of the enclosures of the specified array type.
732
Tunable parameters
Arrayname
Use if particular arrays need customization;

that is, if the tunables vary from those applied
for the array type.
Attributes in this section are applied to all of
the enclosures of the specified array name.
Enclosurename
Applied to the enclosures of the specified Cab

serial number and array name.
Use if particular enclosures need
customization; that is, if the tunables vary
from those applied for the array type and
array name.
Loading is atomic for the section. DMP loads each section only if all of the attributes
in the section are valid. When all sections have been processed, DMP reports the
list of errors and warns the user. DMP does not support a partial rollback. DMP
verifies the tunables and attributes during the load process. However, Symantec
recommends that you check the configuration template file before you attempt to
load the file. Make any required corrections until the configuration file validates
correctly.
The attributes are given priority in the following order when a template is loaded:
Enclosure Section > Array Name Section > Array Type Section
If all enclosures of the same array type need the same settings, then remove the
corresponding array name and enclosure name sections from the template. Define
the settings only in the array type section. If some of the enclosures or array names
need customized settings, retain the attribute sections for the array names or
enclosures. You can remove the entries for the enclosures or the array names if
they use the same settings that are defined for the array type.
When you dump a configuration file from a host, that host may contain some arrays
which are not visible on the other hosts. When you load the template to a target
host that does not include the enclosure, array type, or array name, DMP ignores
the sections.
You may not want to apply settings to non-shared arrays or some host-specific
arrays on the target hosts. Be sure to define an enclosure section for each of those
arrays in the template. When you load the template file to the target host, the
enclosure section determines the settings. Otherwise, DMP applies the settings
from the respective array name or array type sections.
Example DMP tuning template

This section shows an example of a DMP tuning template.
733
Tunable parameters
DMP Tunables
dmp_cache_open=on
dmp_daemon_count=10
dmp_delayq_interval=15
dmp_restore_state=enabled
dmp_fast_recovery=on
dmp_health_time=60
dmp_log_level=1
dmp_low_impact_probe=on
dmp_lun_retry_timeout=0
dmp_path_age=300
dmp_pathswitch_blks_shift=9
dmp_probe_idle_lun=on
dmp_probe_threshold=5
dmp_restore_cycles=10
dmp_restore_interval=300
dmp_restore_policy=check_disabled
dmp_retry_count=5
dmp_scsi_timeout=20
dmp_sfg_threshold=1
dmp_stat_interval=1
dmp_monitor_ownership=on
dmp_monitor_fabric=on
dmp_monitor_osevent=off
dmp_native_support=off
Namingscheme
namingscheme=ebn
persistence=yes
lowercase=yes
use_avid=yes
Arraytype
arraytype=CLR-A/PF
iopolicy=minimumq
partitionsize=512
recoveryoption=timebound iotimeout=300
redundancy=0
Arraytype
arraytype=ALUA
iopolicy=adaptive
partitionsize=512
use_all_paths=no
734
Tunable parameters
redundancy=0
Arraytype
arraytype=Disk
iopolicy=minimumq
partitionsize=512
redundancy=0
Arrayname
arrayname=EMC_CLARiiON
iopolicy=minimumq
partitionsize=512
redundancy=0
Arrayname
arrayname=EVA4K6K
iopolicy=adaptive
partitionsize=512
use_all_paths=no
redundancy=0
Arrayname
arrayname=Disk
iopolicy=minimumq
partitionsize=512
redundancy=0
Enclosure
serial=CK200051900278
arrayname=EMC_CLARiiON
arraytype=CLR-A/PF
iopolicy=minimumq
partitionsize=512
redundancy=0
Enclosure
serial=50001FE1500A8F00
735
Tunable parameters
arrayname=EVA4K6K
arraytype=ALUA
iopolicy=adaptive
partitionsize=512
use_all_paths=no
redundancy=0
Enclosure
serial=50001FE1500BB690
arrayname=EVA4K6K
arraytype=ALUA
iopolicy=adaptive
partitionsize=512
use_all_paths=no
redundancy=0
Enclosure
serial=DISKS
arrayname=Disk
arraytype=Disk
iopolicy=minimumq
partitionsize=512
redundancy=0
Tuning a DMP host with a configuration attribute template

You can use a template file to upload a series of changes to the DMP configuration
to the same host or to another similar host.
Symantec recommends that you load the DMP template to a host that is similar to
the host that was the source of the tunable values.
736
Tunable parameters
To configure DMP on a host with a template
Dump the contents of the current host configuration to a file.

# vxdmpadm config dump file=filename
Edit the file to make any required changes to the tunable parameters in the
template.
The target host may include non-shared arrays or host-specific arrays. To avoid
updating these with settings from the array name or array type, define an
enclosure section for each of those arrays in the template. When you load the
template file to the target host, the enclosure section determines the settings.
Otherwise, DMP applies the settings from the respective array name or array
type sections.
Validate the values of the DMP tunable parameters.

# vxdmpadm config check file=filename
DMP displays no output if the configuration check is successful. If the file

contains errors, DMP displays the errors. Make any required corrections until
the configuration file is valid. For example, you may see errors such as the
following:
VxVM vxdmpadm ERROR V-5-1-0 Template file 'error.file' contains
following errors:
Line No: 22
Line No: 44
non-digits
Line No: 64
the limit of
Line No: 76
Line No: 281
'dmp_daemon_count' can not be set to 0 or less

Specified value for 'dmp_health_time' contains
Specified value for 'dmp_path_age' is beyond
its value
'dmp_probe_idle_lun' can be set to either on or off
Unknown arraytype
Load the file to the target host.

# vxdmpadm config load file=filename
During the loading process, DMP validates each section of the template. DMP
loads all valid sections. DMP does not load any section that contains errors.
Managing the DMP configuration files

You can display the name of the template file most recently loaded to the host. The
information includes the date and time when DMP loaded the template file.
737
Tunable parameters
To display the name of the template file that the host currently uses
# vxdmpadm config show

TEMPLATE_FILE
DATE
TIME
==============================================
/tmp/myconfig
Feb 09, 2011
11:28:59
Resetting the DMP tunable parameters and attributes to the

default values
DMP maintains the default values for the DMP tunable parameters and attributes.
At any time, you can restore the default values to the host. Any changes that you
applied to the host with template files are discarded.
To reset the DMP tunables to the default values

# vxdmpadm config reset
DMP tunable parameters and attributes that are supported

for templates
DMP supports tuning the following tunable parameters and attributes with a
configuration template.
DMP attributes defined for an enclosure, array

name, or array type.
Naming scheme attributes:
iopolicy
partitionsize
use_all_paths
recoveryoption attributes ( retrycount or

iotimeout)
redundancy
dmp_lun_retry_timeout
naming scheme
persistence
lowercase
use_avid
The following tunable parameters are NOT supported with templates:
OS tunables
738
Tunable parameters
TPD mode
Failover attributes of enclosures (failovermode)

Veritas Volume Manager (VxVM) has several parameters that you can use to tune
the environment. The VxVM tunable parameters comprise several components.
The VxVM components for tunable parameters are as follows:
basevm
Parameters to tune the core functionality of VxVM.
See Tunable parameters for core VxVM on page 739.
cvm
Parameters to tune Cluster Volume Manager (CVM).
See Tunable parameters for CVM on page 751.
fmr
Parameters to tune the FlashSnap functionality (FMR).
See Tunable parameters for FlashSnap (FMR) on page 746.
vvr
Parameters to tune Veritas Volume Replicator (VVR).
See Tunable parameters for VVR on page 752.
Tunable parameters for core VxVM

Table B-2 lists the kernel tunable parameters for VxVM.
You can tune the parameters using the vxtune command or the operating system
method, unless otherwise noted.
739
Tunable parameters
Table B-2
Kernel tunable parameters for core VxVM
Parameter
Description
vol_checkpt_default
The interval at which utilities performing recoveries or

resynchronization operations load the current offset into
the kernel as a checkpoint. A system failure during such
operations does not require a full recovery, but can
continue from the last reached checkpoint.
The default value is 20480 sectors (10MB).
Increasing this size reduces the overhead of checkpoints
on recovery operations at the expense of additional
recovery following a system failure during a recovery.
vol_default_iodelay
The count in clock ticks for which utilities pause if they

have been directed to reduce the frequency of issuing
I/O requests, but have not been given a specific delay
time. This tunable is used by utilities performing
operations such as resynchronizing mirrors or rebuilding
RAID-5 columns.
The default value is 50 ticks.
Increasing this value results in slower recovery
operations and consequently lower system impact while
recoveries are being performed.
vol_max_adminio_poolsz
The maximum size of the memory pool that is used for

administrative I/O operations. VxVM uses this pool when
throttling administrative I/O.
The default value is 64MB. The maximum size must not
be greater than the value of the
voliomem_maxpool_sz parameter.
vol_max_vol
This parameter cannot be tuned with the vxtune

command. The maximum number of volumes that can
be created on the system. The minimum permitted value
is 1. The maximum permitted value is the maximum
number of minor numbers representable on the system.
740
Tunable parameters
Table B-2
Kernel tunable parameters for core VxVM (continued)
Parameter
Description
vol_maxio
The maximum size of logical I/O operations that can be

performed without breaking up the request. I/O requests
to VxVM that are larger than this value are broken up
and performed synchronously. Physical I/O requests
are broken up based on the capabilities of the disk
device and are unaffected by changes to this maximum
logical request limit.
The default value is 2048 sectors (1 MB).
The value of voliomem_maxpool_sz must be at least
10 times greater than the value of vol_maxio.
If DRL sequential logging is configured, the value of
voldrl_min_regionsz must be set to at least half
the value of vol_maxio.
The maximum limit for vol_maxio is 20% of the smaller
of physical memory or kernel virtual memory. It is
inadvisable to go over this limit.
vol_maxioctl
The maximum size of data that can be passed into

VxVM via an ioctl call. Increasing this limit allows
larger operations to be performed. Decreasing the limit
is not generally recommended, because some utilities
depend upon performing operations of a certain size
and can fail unexpectedly if they issue oversized ioctl
requests.
The default value is 32768 bytes (32KB).
vol_maxparallelio
The number of I/O operations that the vxconfigd

daemon is permitted to request from the kernel in a
single VOL_VOLDIO_READ per VOL_VOLDIO_WRITE
ioctl call.
The default value is 256. This value should not be
changed.
741
Tunable parameters
Table B-2
Parameter
Description
vol_maxspecialio
The maximum size of an I/O request that can be issued

by an ioctl call. Although the ioctl request itself can
be small, it can request that a large I/O request be
performed. This tunable limits the size of these I/O
requests. If necessary, a request that exceeds this value
can be failed, or the request can be broken up and
performed synchronously.
The default value is 2048 sectors.
Raising this limit can cause difficulties if the size of an
I/O request causes the process to take more memory
or kernel virtual mapping space than exists and thus
deadlock. The maximum limit for this tunable is 20% of
the smaller of physical memory or kernel virtual memory.
It is inadvisable to go over this limit, because deadlock
is likely to occur.
If stripes are larger than the value of this tunable, full
stripe I/O requests are broken up, which prevents
full-stripe read/writes. This throttles the volume I/O
throughput for sequential I/O or larger I/O requests.
This tunable limits the size of an I/O request at a higher
level in VxVM than the level of an individual disk. For
example, for an 8 by 64KB stripe, a value of 256KB only
allows I/O requests that use half the disks in the stripe;
thus, it cuts potential throughput in half. If you have more
columns or you have used a larger interleave factor,
then your relative performance is worse.
This tunable must be set, as a minimum, to the size of
your largest stripe (RAID-0 or RAID-5).
vol_stats_enable
Enables or disables the I/O stat collection for Veritas

Volume manager objects. The default value is 1, since
this functionality is enabled by default.
vol_subdisk_num
The maximum number of subdisks that can be attached

to a single plex. The default value of this tunable is 4096.
742
Tunable parameters
Table B-2
Parameter
Description
voliomem_chunk_size
The granularity of memory chunks used by VxVM when

allocating or releasing system memory. A larger
granularity reduces CPU overhead by allowing VxVM
to retain hold of a larger amount of memory.
The value of this tunable parameter depends on the
page size of the system. You cannot specify a value
larger than the default value. If you change the value,
VxVM aligns the values to the page size when the
system reboots.
The default value is 32 KB for 512 Byte page size.
voliomem_maxpool_sz
The maximum memory requested from the system by

VxVM for internal purposes. This tunable has a direct
impact on the performance of VxVM as it prevents one
I/O operation from using all the memory in the system.
VxVM allocates two pools that can grow up to this size,
one for RAID-5 and one for mirrored volumes. Additional
pools are allocated if instant (Copy On Write) snapshots
are present.
A write request to a RAID-5 volume that is greater than
one fourth of the pool size is broken up and performed
in chunks of one tenth of the pool size.
A write request to a mirrored volume that is greater than
the pool size is broken up and performed in chunks of
the pool size.
The default value is 134217728 (128MB).
The value of voliomem_maxpool_sz must be greater
than the value of volraid_minpool_size.
The value of voliomem_maxpool_sz must be at least
10 times greater than the value of vol_maxio.
743
Tunable parameters
Table B-2
Parameter
Description
voliot_errbuf_dflt
The default size of the buffer maintained for error tracing

events. This buffer is allocated at driver load time and
is not adjustable for size while VxVM is running.
The default value is 16384 bytes (16KB).
Increasing this buffer can provide storage for more error
events at the expense of system memory. Decreasing
the size of the buffer can result in an error not being
detected via the tracing device. Applications that depend
on error tracing to perform some responsive action are
dependent on this buffer.
voliot_iobuf_default
The default size for the creation of a tracing buffer in

the absence of any other specification of desired kernel
buffer size as part of the trace ioctl.
The default value is 8192 bytes (8 KB).
If trace data is often being lost due to this buffer size
being too small, then this value can be increased.
voliot_iobuf_limit
The upper limit to the size of memory that can be used

for storing tracing buffers in the kernel. Tracing buffers
are used by the VxVM kernel to store the tracing event
records. As trace buffers are requested to be stored in
the kernel, the memory for them is drawn from this pool.
Increasing this size can allow additional tracing to be
performed at the expense of system memory usage.
Setting this value to a size greater than can readily be
accommodated on the system is inadvisable.
voliot_iobuf_max
The maximum buffer size that can be used for a single

trace buffer. Requests of a buffer larger than this size
are silently truncated to this size. A request for a
maximal buffer size from the tracing interface results
(subject to limits of usage) in a buffer of this size.
Increasing this buffer can provide for larger traces to be
taken without loss for very heavily used volumes.
Do not increase this value above the value for the
voliot_iobuf_limit tunable value.
744
Tunable parameters
Table B-2
Parameter
Description
voliot_max_open
The maximum number of tracing channels that can be

open simultaneously. Tracing channels are clone entry
points into the tracing device driver. Each vxtrace
process running on a system consumes a single trace
channel.
The default number of channels is 32.
The allocation of each channel takes up approximately
20 bytes even when the channel is not in use.
volraid_minpool_size
This parameter cannot be tuned with the vxtune

command. The initial amount of memory that is
requested from the system by VxVM for RAID-5
operations. The maximum size of this memory pool is
limited by the value of voliomem_maxpool_sz.
The default value is 8192 sectors (4MB).
volraid_rsrtransmax
The maximum number of transient reconstruct

operations that can be performed in parallel for RAID-5.
A transient reconstruct operation is one that occurs on
a non-degraded RAID-5 volume that has not been
predicted. Limiting the number of these operations that
can occur simultaneously removes the possibility of
flooding the system with many reconstruct operations,
and so reduces the risk of causing memory starvation.
Increasing this size improves the initial performance on
the system when a failure first occurs and before a
detach of a failing object is performed, but can lead to
memory starvation.
autostartvolumes
Turns on or off the automatic volume recovery. When

set to on, VxVM automatically recovers and starts
disabled volumes when you import, join, move, or split
a disk group. When set to off, turns off this behavior.
fssmartmovethreshold
The threshold for an individual file system, in percentage

full. After this threshold is reached, the SmartMove
feature is not used. The default value is 100.
745
Tunable parameters
Table B-2
Parameter

Description
reclaim_on_delete_start_time The time of day when the reclamation begins on a thin

LUN, after a volume using that LUN is deleted. Specified
in 24 hour time (HH:MM). The default value is 22:10.
reclaim_on_delete_wait_period The number of days to wait before starting to reclaim
space on a thin LUN, after a volume using that LUN is
deleted. Specified as an integer from 1 to 366, where
1 specifies immediately and 366 specifies never. The
default value is 1.
usefssmartmove
The state of the SmartMove feature. Valid values are:
thinonly use for Thin disks only.
all use for all disks.
none turn off the SmartMove feature.
The default value is all.
Tunable parameters for FlashSnap (FMR)

Table B-3 lists the kernel tunable parameters for FlashSnap. The vxtune command
classifies these parameters under the FMR component.
746
Tunable parameters
Table B-3
Kernel tunable parameters for FlashSnap (FMR)
Parameter
Description
vol_fmr_logsz
The maximum size in kilobytes of the bitmap that

Non-Persistent FastResync uses to track changed
blocks in a volume. The number of blocks in a volume
that are mapped to each bit in the bitmap depends on
the size of the volume, and this value changes if the
size of the volume is changed.
For example, if the volume size is 1 gigabyte and the
system block size is 512 bytes, a value for this tunable
of 4 yields a map that contains 16,384 bits, each bit
representing one region of 128 blocks.
The larger the bitmap size, the fewer the number of
blocks that are mapped to each bit. This can reduce
the amount of reading and writing required on
resynchronization, at the expense of requiring more
non-pageable kernel memory for the bitmap.
Additionally, on clustered systems, a larger bitmap size
increases the latency in I/O performance, and it also
increases the load on the private network between the
cluster members. This is because every other member
of the cluster must be informed each time a bit in the
map is marked.
Since the region size must be the same on all nodes
in a cluster for a shared volume, the value of this
tunable on the master node overrides the tunable
values on the slave nodes, if these values are different.
Because the value of a shared volume can change,
the value of this tunable is retained for the life of the
volume.
In configurations which have thousands of mirrors with
attached snapshot plexes, the total memory overhead
can represent a significantly higher overhead in
memory consumption than is usual for VxVM.
The default value is 4 KB. The maximum and minimum
permitted values are 1 KB and 8 KB.
Specify a value to vxtune in kilobytes.
Note: The value of this tunable does not have any

effect on Persistent FastResync.
747
Tunable parameters
Table B-3
Kernel tunable parameters for FlashSnap (FMR) (continued)
Parameter
Description
voldrl_dirty_regions
This parameter applies to enhanced DCO layout

(version 30) only.
Represents the number of dirty regions to cache before
another write to the same region causes a DRL update.
A smaller number results in more frequent updates to
the DRL, which decreases performance. A larger
number results in better I/O performance, but requires
that the DRL uses more memory.
voldrl_max_drtregs
The maximum number of dirty regions that can exist

on the system for non-sequential DRL on volumes. A
larger value may result in improved system
performance at the expense of recovery time. This
tunable can be used to regulate the worse-case
recovery time for the system following a failure.
voldrl_max_seq_dirty
The maximum number of dirty regions allowed for

sequential DRL. This is useful for volumes that are
usually written to sequentially, such as database logs.
Limiting the number of dirty regions allows for faster
recovery if a crash occurs.
voldrl_min_regionsz
The minimum number of sectors for a dirty region

logging (DRL) volume region. With DRL, VxVM logically
divides a volume into a set of consecutive regions.
Larger region sizes tend to cause the cache hit-ratio
for regions to improve. This improves the write
performance, but it also prolongs the recovery time.
The default value is 512 sectors.
If DRL sequential logging is configured, the value of
voldrl_min_regionsz must be set to at least half
the value of vol_maxio.
Specify the value in sectors.
748
Tunable parameters
Table B-3
Parameter
Description
voldrl_volumemax_drtregs
Maximum per-volume limit on dirty regions for a

mirrored volume using traditional DRL. For heavily-used
volumes, increase the value of this parameter to
improve performance.
voldrl_volumemax_drtregs_20 Maximum per-volume limit on dirty regions for a

mirrored volume using version 20 DCO. For
heavily-used volumes, increase the value of this
parameter to improve performance. The default value
is 1024.
749
Tunable parameters
Table B-3
Parameter
Description
volpagemod_max_memsz
The amount of memory that is allocated for caching

FastResync and cache object metadata. The memory
allocated for this cache is exclusively dedicated and is
not available for other processes or applications.
The default value is 6144KB (6MB).
If cache objects or volumes that are prepared for instant
snapshot operations are present on the system, setting
the value below 512KB fails. If you do not use the
FastResync or DRL features that are implemented
using a version 20 DCO volume, you can set the value
to 0. If you subsequently decide to enable these
features, change the value to an appropriate one.
Specify the value in kilobytes. The new value is
page-aligned automatically; however the actual value
specified is made persistent.
Determine the value based on the region size and the
number of volumes for which instant snapshots are
taken. The paging module size must be at least twice
the size required for the largest size volume, as
calculated with the following formula:
size_in_KB = 6 * (total_volume_size_in_GB) *
(64/region_size_in_KB)
For example, a single 1TB volume requires around
6MB of paging memory if the region size is 64KB. The
minimum value for the tunable parameter is at least
twice that, or 12 MB.
If there are multiple volumes, all volumes share the
same paging module. The maximum requirement is
calculated by multiplying the above formula by the
number of volumes. However, a more reasonable value
depends on the average load to each volume. For
example, if only 20% of the data on each volume is
updated, the paging module size can be reduced
proportionally without compromising the performance.
The minimum requirement for the largest volume still
must be met. For example, if there are 10 volumes of
1TB each, the initial calculation is 60MB of paging
memory. If only 20% of the data is updated, calculate
the revised value as 12MB.
750
Tunable parameters
Tunable parameters for CVM

Table B-4 lists the kernel tunable parameters for CVM. You can tune the parameters
using the vxtune command or the operating system method, unless otherwise
noted.
Table B-4
Kernel tunable parameters for CVM
autoreminor
Turns on or off the automatic reminor

functionality. A disk group cannot be imported
if the device minor numbers of the disk group
or its objects conflict with those of an existing
disk group. When autoreminor is on, VxVM
automatically assigns new minor numbers to
a disk group if VxVM detects a conflict during
an import. The disk group is then imported.
In some scenarios such as with NFS file
systems, assigning new minor numbers may
result in issues. In this case, set the tunable
parameter to off'. When the autoreminor
parameter is set to off', attempting to import
a disk group with conflicting minor numbers
will fail, even when you specify the force (-f)
option. You must manually reminor the disk
group before you can import the disk group.
same_key_for_alldgs
By default, CVM generates a unique fence

key for each of the shared disk groups in the
cluster. Some storage arrays have an upper
limit on the number of unique keys that can
be registered. When persistent reservation is
used, CVM might reach the limit.
When this tunable is set to on, CVM
generates the same key for shared disk
groups that it creates or imports. Disk groups
that are already imported when the tunable
is set must be deported and re-imported
before the changed value of the tunable takes
effect.
The default value is off.
sharedminorstart
The starting number in the range used to

assign device minor numbers in shared
(CVM) disk groups. The default value is
33000.
751
Tunable parameters
Table B-4
Kernel tunable parameters for CVM (continued)
storage_connectivity
A clusterwide tunable parameter that

indicates the CVM tolerance to storage
disconnectivity.
When the value is asymmetric (the default),
CVM enables a node to join the cluster as
long as the node has access to all of the disks
through another node. Similarly, as long as
at least one node can access the disks in a
shared disk group, CVM can import the
shared disk group.
When the value is resilient, CVM requires that
a node must have access to all of the disks
in a shared disk group before the node can
join the CVM cluster. The connectivity is also
required before a shared disk group can be
imported.
With either setting, CVM handles access to
the disk group configuration as long as at
least one node has access to the disk group
configuration.
Tunable parameters for VVR

Table B-5 lists the tunable parameters for VVR.
Table B-5
VVR Tunables
Tunable Name
Description
vol_cmpres_enabled
A clusterwide tunable parameter that enables or

disables compression globally. The default value is 0,
since compression is disabled by default.
vol_cmpres_threads
A per-system tunable that lets you set the number of

compression threads on the Primary host or the number
of decompression threads on the Secondary host
between 1 and 64. The default value is 10. You can tune
this setting dependent on your CPU usage.
752
Tunable parameters
Table B-5
VVR Tunables (continued)
Tunable Name
Description
vol_dcm_replay_size
This tunable cannot be changed using the vxtune

command.
The size of the DCM replay blocks. The default value is
256KB.
vol_max_nmpool_sz
The amount of buffer space available for requests coming

in to the Secondary over the network. The default value
is 64MB.
vol_max_rdback_sz
The amount of buffer space available for readbacks. The

default value is 128MB.
vol_max_wrspool_sz
The write ship buffer space, which is the amount of buffer

space that can be allocated on the logowner to receive
writes sent by the non-logowner. The default value is
64MB.
vol_min_lowmem_sz
The minimum buffer space. VVR frees the write if the

amount of buffer space available is below this threshold.
The default value is 4MB (4194304 bytes).
This value is auto-tunable. The value that you specify is
used as an initial value and could change depending on
the application write behavior.
vol_nm_hb_timeout
The heartbeat timeout value. The default value is 10

seconds.
vol_rvio_maxpool_sz
The amount of buffer space that can be allocated within

the operating system to handle incoming writes. The
default value is 128MB.
vol_vvr_use_nat
This tunable cannot be changed using the vxtune

command.
This tunable parameter directs VVR to use the translated
address from the received message so that VVR can
communicate over a NAT-based firewall. Set this tunable
to 1 only if there is a NAT-based firewall in the
configuration.
Points to note when changing the values of the VVR tunables

Note the following points when changing the values of the tunables:
753
Tunable parameters
When decreasing the value of the vol_rvio_maxpool_sz tunable, all the RVGs
on the host must be stopped.
When decreasing the size of the tunables vol_max_rdback_sz and

vol_max_nmpool_sz pause the RLINKs.
Note: vol_max_wrspool_sz also pauses the RLINKs.
The vol_min_lowmem_sz tunable is auto-tunable; depending on the incoming

writes VVR increases or decreases the tunable value.
Auto-tuning is only supported for the tunable vol_min_lowmem_sz.
In a shared disk group environment, you may choose to set only those tunables
that are required on each host. However, we recommend that you configure the
tunables appropriately even if the tunables are currently not being used. This is
because if the logowner changes, then tunables on the new logowner will be used.
The following list of tunables are required to be set only on the logowner and not
the other hosts:
vol_max_rdback_sz
vol_max_nmpool_sz
vol_max_wrspool_sz
vol_dcm_replay_size
vol_nm_hb_timeout
vol_vvr_use_nat
The tunable changes that are done using the vxtune command affect only the
tunable values on the host on which it is run. Therefore, in a shared disk group
environment, you must run the command separately on each host for which you
want to change the tunable values.
Methods to change Veritas Volume Manager tunable

parameters
Veritas Volume Manager (VxVM) provides a variety of parameters that you can use
to tune your configuration.
See Tunable parameters for VxVM on page 739.
Change the VxVM tunable parameters with one of the following methods:
754
Tunable parameters
Use the vxtune command to display or

modify the values of the VxVM tunable
parameters.
See Changing the values of the Veritas

Volume Manager tunable parameters using
the vxtune command line on page 755.
Use the template method of the vxtune

command.
See Changing the value of the Veritas

Volume Manager tunable parameters using
templates on page 757.
Changing the values of the Veritas Volume Manager tunable

parameters using the vxtune command line
Use the vxtune command to display or change the values of the VxVM tunable
parameters. The changes are persistent so that the value is retained after
subsequent reboots. Before setting a new value, VxVM validates the value to ensure
that it is within the permissible range for the tunable. If the value is valid, VxVM
updates the tunable. Some tunables require a reboot before the changed value
takes effect. VxVM prompts you to reboot the system, if required.
By default, the vxtune command only affects the tunable values on the host on
which it is run, except for clusterwide tunable parameters. The clusterwide
attribute indicates that the vxtune command sets the value for that tunable on all
nodes in the cluster. If the tunable parameter is not clusterwide, you can use the
-C option to change the tunable values on all nodes of the cluster. If the -C option
is used on a standalone system, the operation fails.
VxVM stores the tunable values in the /etc/vx/vxtunables file.
Caution: The recommended method to change the tunable values is with the vxtune
command. Do not edit the tunable values directly in the vxtunables file.
For most tunables, specify the value of the tunable with a suffix to indicate the units:
K, M, or G. If no unit is specified, vxtune assumes the value is bytes.
Note: The default unit for entering a value may differ from the default display unit.
755
Tunable parameters
756
To change the values of the VxVM tunable parameters
Find the name and current value of the tunable you want to change. Use the
-l option to display a description.
# vxtune -l
The following example shows a truncated output, that shows the format.
Tunable
Current Value Default Value Reboot Clusterwide
------------------- ------------- ------------- ------ ----------vol_checkpt_default
20480
20480
Y
N
vol_cmpres_enabled
vol_cmpres_threads
10
10
vol_default_iodelay
50
50
67108864
67108864
vol_fmr_logsz
vol_max_adminio_poolsz
Description
----------Size of VxVM
checkpoints (sectors)
Allow enabling
compression for VERITAS
Volume Replicator
Maximum number of
compression threads
for VERITAS
Volume Replicator
Time to pause between
I/O requests from VxVM
utilities (10ms units)
Maximum size of bitmap
Fast Mirror Resync
uses to track changed
blocks (KBytes)
Maximum amount of
memory used by
VxVM admin IO's (bytes)
.
.
.
The output displays the default value and the current value. The Reboot field
indicates whether or not a reboot is required before the tunable value takes
effect. The Clusterwide field indicates whether vxtune applies the value to all
nodes in the cluster by default.
See the vxtune(1M) manual page.
Tunable parameters
Set the new value for a specific tunable. Specify the value with a suffix to
indicate the units: K, M, or G. If not unit is specified, the vxtune command uses
the default unit for the tunable parameter. For most tunables, the default value
is bytes. The description in the vxtune output displays the default units for
each tunable.
# vxtune [-C] tunable_name tunable_value
For example, to change the value of vol_cmpres_enabled to 1, use the

following command:
# vxtune vol_cmpres_enabled 1
If the specified tunable parameter is not clusterwide, use the -C option to set
its value for all nodes in the cluster.
Verify the new value.

# vxtune tunable_name
For example, to view the changed value for vol_cmpres_enabled, use the
following command:
# vxtune vol_cmpres_enabled
Tunable
Current Value Default Value Reboot
-------------------- ------------- ------------- -----vol_cmpres_enabled
1
0
N
The vxtune command changed the value on all nodes in the cluster, because
the vol_cmpres_enabled tunable parameter is clusterwide.
Changing the value of the Veritas Volume Manager tunable

parameters using templates
VxVM provides a template method to change the tunable parameters. With this
method, you export the tunable parameters to a file, modify the file, then import the
file. The tunable template must be strictly of the format that export provides. In case
of discrepencies observe that particular value will be discarded.
757
Tunable parameters
To change the values of the VxVM tunable parameters using templates
Export the tunable parameters and their values to a tunable template file. You
can export all of the tunable parameters or specify a component.
# vxtune export file=file_name [component]
For example:
# vxtune export file=vxvm-tunables
# vxtune export file=vvr-tunables vvr
Modify the template as required. You must retain the file format that the export
operation provides.
Import the tunable template file to the sytem. The import operation only applies
valid values. If a value is not valid for a specific parameter, that particular value
is discarded.
# vxtune import file=file_name
For example:
# vxtune import file=vxvm-tunables
758
Appendix
Veritas File System disk

layout
About Veritas File System disk layouts
VxFS Version 7 disk layout

The disk layout is the way file system information is stored on disk. On Veritas File
System (VxFS), several different disk layout versions were created to take advantage
of evolving technological developments.
The disk layout versions used on VxFS are:
Veritas File System disk layout

Version 6
Version 6 disk layout enables features such as

Deprecated
multi-volume support, cross-platform data sharing, named
data streams, and File Change Log.
A disk layout Version 6 file system can still be mounted,
but this will be disallowed in future releases. Symantec
recommends that you upgrade from Version 6 to the
latest default disk layout version. In this release, disk
layout Version 6 cannot be cluster mounted. You cannot
create new file systems with disk layout Version 6. The
only operation that you can perform on a file system with
disk layout Version 6 is to upgrade the disk layout to a
supported version. If you upgrade a file system from disk
layout Version 6 to a later version, once the upgrade
operation finishes, you must unmount the file system
cleanly, then re-mount the file system.
Version 7
Version 7 disk layout enables support for variable and Supported

large size history log records, more than 2048 volumes,
large directory hash, and SmartTier.
Version 8
Version 8 disk layout enables support for file-level

snapshots.
Supported
Version 9
Version 9 disk layout enables support for file

compression, file replication, data deduplication, and
partition directories.
Supported
Version 10
Version 10 disk layout enables support for SmartIO and Supported

maxlink.
Some of the disk layout versions were not supported on all UNIX operating systems.
Currently, only the Version 7, 8, 9, and 10 disk layouts can be created and mounted.
The Version 6 disk layout can be mounted, but only for upgrading to a supported
version. Disk layout Version 6 cannot be cluster mounted. To cluster mount such
a file system, you must first mount the file system on one node and then upgrade
to a supported disk layout version using the vxupgrade command. No other versions
can be created or mounted. Version 10 is the default disk layout version.
The vxupgrade command is provided to upgrade an existing VxFS file system to
the Version 7 layout while the file system remains online.
See the vxupgrade(1M) manual page.
The vxfsconvert command is provided to upgrade ext2 and ext3 file systems to
the Version 7 disk layout while the file system is not mounted.
See the vxfsconvert(1M) manual page.
760


Disk layout Version 7 enables support for variable and large size history log records,
more than 2048 volumes, large directory hash, and SmartTier. The Version 7 disk
layout can theoretically support files and file systems up to 8 exabytes (263). The
maximum file system size that can be created is currently restricted to 235 blocks.
For a file system to take advantage of greater than 1 terabyte support, it must be
created on a Veritas Volume Manager volume. For 64-bit kernels, the maximum
size of the file system you can create depends on the block size.
Block Size
Currently-Supported Theoretical Maximum File System Size
1024 bytes
68,719,472,624 sectors (32 TB)
2048 bytes
137,438,945,248 sectors (64 TB)
4096 bytes
274,877,890,496 sectors (128 TB)
8192 bytes
549,755,780,992 sectors (256 TB)
The Version 7 disk layout supports group quotas.


Disk layout Version 8 enables support for file-level snapshots. The Version 8 disk
layout can theoretically support files and file systems up to 8 exabytes (263). The
maximum file system size that can be created is currently restricted to 235 blocks.
For a file system to take advantage of greater than 1 terabyte support, it must be
created on a Veritas Volume Manager volume. For 64-bit kernels, the maximum
size of the file system you can create depends on the block size.
Block Size
1024 bytes
68,719,472,624 sectors (32 TB)
2048 bytes
137,438,945,248 sectors (64 TB)
4096 bytes
274,877,890,496 sectors (128 TB)
8192 bytes
549,755,780,992 sectors (256 TB)

761


Disk layout Version 9 enables support for data deduplication, file replication, and
file compression. The Version 9 disk layout can theoretically support files and file
systems up to 8 exabytes (263). The maximum file system size that can be created
is currently restricted to 235 blocks. For a file system to take advantage of greater
than 1 terabyte support, it must be created on a Veritas Volume Manager volume.
For 64-bit kernels, the maximum size of the file system you can create depends on
the block size.
Block Size
1024 bytes
68,719,472,624 sectors (32 TB)
2048 bytes
137,438,945,248 sectors (64 TB)
4096 bytes
274,877,890,496 sectors (128 TB)
8192 bytes
549,755,780,992 sectors (256 TB)


Disk layout Version 10 enables support for SmartIO and maxlink. The Version 10
disk layout can theoretically support files and file systems up to 8 exabytes (263).
The maximum file system size that can be created is currently restricted to 235
blocks. For a file system to take advantage of greater than 1 terabyte support, it
must be created on a Veritas Volume Manager volume. For 64-bit kernels, the
maximum size of the file system you can create depends on the block size.
Block Size
1024 bytes
68,719,472,624 sectors (32 TB)
2048 bytes
137,438,945,248 sectors (64 TB)
4096 bytes
274,877,890,496 sectors (128 TB)
8192 bytes
549,755,780,992 sectors (256 TB)

762
Appendix
Command reference
Command completion for Veritas commands
Veritas Volume Manager command reference
Veritas Volume Manager manual pages
Veritas File System command summary
Veritas File System manual pages

Symantec Storage Foundation supports command completion for Veritas Volume
Manager (VxVM) commands and Dynamic Multi-Pathing (DMP) commands.
In this release, command completion is supported only on the bash shell. The shell
must be bash version 2.4 or later.
To use this feature, press Tab while entering a supported VxVM or DMP command.
The command is completed as far as possible. When there is a choice, the command
completion displays the next valid options for the command. Enter one of the
displayed values. A value in brackets indicates a user-specified value.
Note: Platform-specific options are not supported with command completion.
By default, you can use the command completion feature by invoking the bash shell
on every log in. If you want to permanently enable the command completion, use
# vxdctl cmdcompletion enable
Command reference
The enable command completion creates the .bash_profile file, if it is not present.
To permanently disable the command completion, use the following command:
# vxdctl cmdcompletion disable

The following commands support command completion:
vxassist
vxdisk
vxplex
vxprint
vxsnap
vxstat
vxtune
vxcache
vxconfigd
vxtask
vxreattach
vxdmpadm
vxddladm
vxvol
vxcdsconvert
vxresize
vxdctl
vxsd
vxdisksetup
vxdiskunsetup
vxrecover
vxedit
vxdg
vxclustadm
764
Command reference

Most Veritas Volume Manager (VxVM) commands (excepting daemons, library
commands and supporting scripts) are linked to the /usr/sbin directory from the
/opt/VRTS/bin directory. It is recommended that you add the following directories
to your PATH environment variable:
If you are using the Bourne or Korn shell (sh or ksh), use the commands:
$ PATH=$PATH:/usr/sbin:/opt/VRTS/bin:/opt/VRTSvxfs/sbin:\
/opt/VRTSdbed/bin:/opt/VRTSob/bin
$ MANPATH=/usr/share/man:/opt/VRTS/man:$MANPATH
$ export PATH MANPATH
If you are using a C shell (csh or tcsh), use the commands:

% set path = ( $path /usr/sbin /opt/VRTSvxfs/sbin \
/opt/VRTSdbed/bin /opt/VRTSob/bin /opt/VRTS/bin )
% setenv MANPATH /usr/share/man:/opt/VRTS/man:$MANPATH
VxVM library commands and supporting scripts are located under the
/usr/lib/vxvm directory hierarchy. You can include these directories in your path
if you need to use them on a regular basis.
For detailed information about an individual command, refer to the appropriate
manual page in the 1M section.
See Veritas Volume Manager manual pages on page 785.
Commands and scripts that are provided to support other commands and scripts,
and which are not intended for general use, are not located in /opt/VRTS/bin and
do not have manual pages.
Commonly-used commands are summarized in the following tables:
Table D-1 lists commands for obtaining information about objects in VxVM.
Table D-2 lists commands for administering disks.
Table D-3 lists commands for creating and administering disk groups.
Table D-4 lists commands for creating and administering subdisks.
Table D-5 lists commands for creating and administering plexes.
Table D-6 lists commands for creating volumes.
Table D-7 lists commands for administering volumes.
Table D-8 lists commands for monitoring and controlling tasks in VxVM.
765
Command reference
Table D-1
Obtaining information about objects in VxVM
Command
Description
vxdctl license [init]
List licensed features of VxVM.

The init parameter is required when a
license has been added or removed
from the host for the new license to take
effect.
vxdisk [-g diskgroup] list [diskname] Lists disks under control of VxVM.
See Displaying disk information
on page 261.
Example:
# vxdisk -g mydg list
vxdg list [diskgroup]
Lists information about disk groups.

See Displaying disk group information
on page 623.
Example:
# vxdg list mydg
vxdg -s list
Lists information about shared disk

groups.
Example:
# vxdg -s list
vxdisk -o alldgs list
Lists all diskgroups on the disks. The

imported diskgroups are shown as
standard, and additionally all other
diskgroups are listed in single quotes.
766
Command reference
Table D-1
Obtaining information about objects in VxVM (continued)
Command
Description
vxinfo [-g diskgroup] [volume ...]
Displays information about the

accessibility and usability of volumes.
See the Symantec Storage Foundation
and High Availability Solutions
Example:
# vxinfo -g mydg myvol1 \
myvol2
vxprint -hrt [-g diskgroup] [object

...]
Prints single-line information about

objects in VxVM.
Example:
# vxprint -g mydg myvol1 \
myvol2
Provides a consolidated view of the SF

configuration, including information from
Veritas Volume Manager (VxVM) and
Veritas File System (VxFS).
vxlist
See vxlist(1m) manual page.

vxprint -st [-g diskgroup] [subdisk
...]
Displays information about subdisks.

Example:
# vxprint -st -g mydg
vxprint -pt [-g diskgroup] [plex ...] Displays information about plexes.
Example:
# vxprint -pt -g mydg
Table D-2
Administering disks
Command
Description
vxdisk [-o full] reclaim

{disk|enclosure|diskgroup}...
Performs storage reclamation on thin

provision LUNs.
767
Command reference
Table D-2
Administering disks (continued)
Command
Description
vxdiskadm
Administers disks in VxVM using a

menu-based interface.
vxdiskadd [devicename ...]
Adds a disk specified by device name.

See Using vxdiskadd to put a disk
under VxVM control on page 279.
Example:
# vxdiskadd sde
vxedit [-g diskgroup] rename \

olddisk newdisk
Renames a disk under control of VxVM.

See Renaming a disk on page 283.
Example:
# vxedit -g mydg rename \
mydg03 mydg02
vxedit [-g diskgroup] set \

reserve=on|off diskname
Sets aside/does not set aside a disk

from use in a disk group.
Examples:
# vxedit -g mydg set \
reserve=on mydg02
reserve=off mydg02

nohotuse=on|off diskname
Does not/does allow free space on a

disk to be used for hot-relocation.
See Excluding a disk from
hot-relocation use on page 553.
See Making a disk available for
hot-relocation use on page 554.
Examples:
nohotuse=on mydg03
nohotuse=off mydg03
768
Command reference
Table D-2
Command
Description

spare=on|off diskname
Adds/removes a disk from the pool of

hot-relocation spares.
See Marking a disk as a hot-relocation
spare on page 551.
See Removing a disk from use as a
hot-relocation spare on page 552.
Examples:
spare=on mydg04
spare=off mydg04
vxdisk online devicename
Clears the offline state for a disk device.

See vxdisk(1M) manual page.
Example:
# vxdisk online sde
vxdisk offline devicename
Takes a disk offline.

Example:
# vxdisk offline sde
vxdg -g diskgroup adddisk diskname
Adds a disk to a disk group.

See Growing the existing storage by
adding a new LUN on page 113.
Example:
# vxdg -g mydg adddisk mydg02
vxdg -g diskgroup rmdisk diskname
Removes a disk from its disk group.

See Removing a disk from a disk group
on page 626.
Example:
# vxdg -g mydg rmdisk mydg02
769
Command reference
Table D-2
Command
Description
vxdisksetup devicename
Configures a disk for use with VxVM.

See Provisioning new storage
on page 112.
Example:
# /etc/vx/bin/vxdisksetup -i
enc1_3
vxdiskunsetup devicename
Removes a disk from control of VxVM.

See Removing a disk from a disk group
on page 626.
Example:
# vxdiskunsetup sdg
Table D-3
Creating and administering disk groups
Command
Description
vxdg [-s] init diskgroup \

[diskname=]devicename
Creates a disk group using a

pre-initialized disk.
See Creating a disk group on page 625.
Example:
# vxdg init mydg \
mydg01=sde
vxdg -g diskgroup listssbinfo
Reports conflicting configuration

information.
See Handling conflicting configuration
copies on page 646.
Example:
# vxdg -g mydg listssbinfo
770
Command reference
Table D-3
Creating and administering disk groups (continued)
Command
Description
vxdg [-n newname] deport diskgroup
Deports a disk group and optionally

renames it.
See Deporting a disk group
on page 627.
Example:
# vxdg -n newdg deport mydg
vxdg [-n newname] import diskgroup
Imports a disk group and optionally

renames it.
See Importing a disk group
on page 628.
Example:
# vxdg -n newdg import mydg
vxdg [-n newname] -s import diskgroup Imports a disk group as shared by a

cluster, and optionally renames it.
Example:
# vxdg -n newsdg -s import \
mysdg
vxdg [-o expand] listmove sourcedg \ Lists the objects potentially affected by
targetdg object ...
moving a disk group.
See Listing objects potentially affected
by a move on page 594.
Example:
# vxdg -o expand listmove \
mydg newdg myvol1
771
Command reference
Table D-3
Command
Description
vxdg [-o expand] move sourcedg \

targetdg object ...
Moves objects between disk groups.

See Moving objects between disk
groups on page 596.
Example:
# vxdg -o expand move mydg \
newdg myvol1
vxdg [-o expand] split sourcedg \

targetdg object ...
Splits a disk group and moves the

specified objects into the target disk
group.
See Splitting disk groups on page 599.
Example:
# vxdg -o expand split mydg \
newdg myvol2 myvol3
vxdg join sourcedg targetdg
Joins two disk groups.

See Joining disk groups on page 600.
Example:
# vxdg join newdg mydg
vxdg -g diskgroup set \

activation=ew|ro|sr|sw|off
Sets the activation mode of a shared

disk group in a cluster.
Example:
# vxdg -g mysdg set \
activation=sw
vxrecover -g diskgroup -sb
Starts all volumes in an imported disk

group.
See Moving disk groups between
systems on page 631.
Example:
# vxrecover -g mydg -sb
772
Command reference
Table D-3
Command
Description
vxdg destroy diskgroup
Destroys a disk group and releases its

disks.
See Destroying a disk group
on page 653.
Example:
# vxdg destroy mydg
Table D-4
Creating and administering subdisks
Command
Description
vxmake [-g diskgroup] sd subdisk \

diskname,offset,length
Creates a subdisk.
Example:
# vxmake -g mydg sd \
mydg02-01 mydg02,0,8000
vxsd [-g diskgroup] assoc plex \

subdisk...
Associates subdisks with an existing

plex.
Example:
# vxsd -g mydg assoc home-1 \
mydg02-01 mydg02-00 \
mydg02-01
vxsd [-g diskgroup] assoc plex \

subdisk1:0 ... subdiskM:N-1
Adds subdisks to the ends of the

columns in a striped or RAID-5 volume.
Example:
# vxsd -g mydg assoc \
vol01-01 mydg10-01:0 \
mydg11-01:1 mydg12-01:2
vxsd [-g diskgroup] mv oldsubdisk \

newsubdisk ...
Replaces a subdisk.
Example:
# vxsd -g mydg mv mydg01-01 \
mydg02-01
773
Command reference
Table D-4
Creating and administering subdisks (continued)
Command
Description
vxsd [-g diskgroup] -s size split \

subdisk sd1 sd2
Splits a subdisk in two.

Example:
# vxsd -g mydg -s 1000m \
split mydg03-02 mydg03-02 \
mydg03-03
vxsd [-g diskgroup] join \

sd1 sd2 ... subdisk
Joins two or more subdisks.

Example:
# vxsd -g mydg join \
mydg03-02 mydg03-03 \
mydg03-02
vxassist [-g diskgroup] move \

volume \!olddisk newdisk
Relocates subdisks in a volume between

disks.
Example:
# vxassist -g mydg move \
myvol \!mydg02 mydg05
Note: The ! character is a special

character in some shells. This example
vxunreloc [-g diskgroup] original_disk Relocates subdisks to their original
disks.
See Moving relocated subdisks using
vxunreloc on page 555.
Example:
# vxunreloc -g mydg mydg01
vxsd [-g diskgroup] dis subdisk
Dissociates a subdisk from a plex.

Example:
# vxsd -g mydg dis mydg02-01
774
Command reference
Table D-4
Creating and administering subdisks (continued)
Command
Description
vxedit [-g diskgroup] rm subdisk
Removes a subdisk.
Example:
# vxedit -g mydg rm mydg02-01
vxsd [-g diskgroup] -o rm dis subdisk Dissociates and removes a subdisk from
a plex.
Example:
# vxsd -g mydg -o rm dis \
mydg02-01
Table D-5
Creating and administering plexes
Command
Description
vxmake [-g diskgroup] plex plex \

sd=subdisk1[,subdisk2,...]
Creates a concatenated plex.

Example:
# vxmake -g mydg plex \
vol01-02 \
sd=mydg02-01,mydg02-02
vxmake [-g diskgroup] plex plex \

layout=stripe|raid5 stwidth=W \
ncolumn=N \
sd=subdisk1[,subdisk2,...]
Creates a striped or RAID-5 plex.

Example:
# vxmake -g mydg plex pl-01 \
layout=stripe stwidth=32 \
ncolumn=2 \
sd=mydg01-01,mydg02-01
vxplex [-g diskgroup] att volume plex Attaches a plex to an existing volume.
See Reattaching a plex manually
on page 660.
Example:
# vxplex -g mydg att vol01 \
vol01-02
775
Command reference
Table D-5
Creating and administering plexes (continued)
Command
Description
vxplex [-g diskgroup] det plex
Detaches a plex.
Example:
# vxplex -g mydg det vol01-02
vxmend [-g diskgroup] off plex
Takes a plex offline for maintenance.

Example:
# vxmend -g mydg off vol02-02
vxmend [-g diskgroup] on plex
Re-enables a plex for use.

on page 660.
Example:
# vxmend -g mydg on vol02-02
vxplex [-g diskgroup] mv oldplex \

newplex
Replaces a plex.
Example:
# vxplex -g mydg mv \
vol02-02 vol02-03
vxplex [-g diskgroup] cp volume \

newplex
Copies a volume onto a plex.

Example:
# vxplex -g mydg cp vol02 \
vol03-01
vxmend [-g diskgroup] fix clean plex Sets the state of a plex in an unstartable
volume to CLEAN.
on page 660.
Example:
# vxmend -g mydg fix clean \
vol02-02
776
Command reference
Table D-5
Creating and administering plexes (continued)
Command
Description
vxplex [-g diskgroup] -o rm dis plex Dissociates and removes a plex from a
volume.
Example:
# vxplex -g mydg -o rm dis \
vol03-01
Table D-6
Creating volumes
Command
Description
vxassist [-g diskgroup] maxsize \

layout=layout [attributes]
Displays the maximum size of volume

that can be created.
Example:
# vxassist -g mydg maxsize \
layout=raid5 nlog=2
vxassist -b [-g diskgroup] make \

volume length [layout=layout] \
[attributes]
Creates a volume.
See Creating a volume on specific
disks on page 146.
Example:
# vxassist -b -g mydg make \
myvol 20g layout=concat \
mydg01 mydg02

volume length layout=mirror \
[nmirror=N][attributes]
Creates a mirrored volume.

See Creating a mirrored volume
on page 140.
Example:
mymvol 20g layout=mirror \
nmirror=2
777
Command reference
Table D-6
Creating volumes (continued)
Command
Description

volume length layout=layout \
exclusive=on [attributes]
Creates a volume that may be opened

exclusively by a single node in a cluster.
Example:
# vxassist -b -g mysdg make \
mysmvol 20g layout=mirror \
exclusive=on

Creates a striped or RAID-5 volume.
volume length layout={stripe|raid5} \
See Creating a striped volume
[stripeunit=W] [ncol=N] \
on page 142.
[attributes]
See Creating a RAID-5 volume
on page 144.
Example:
mysvol 20g layout=stripe \
stripeunit=32 ncol=4

volume length layout=mirror \
mirror=ctlr [attributes]
Creates a volume with mirrored data

plexes on separate controllers.
Example:
mymcvol 20g layout=mirror \
mirror=ctlr
vxmake -b [-g diskgroup] \

-Uusage_type vol volume \
[len=length] plex=plex,...
Creates a volume from existing plexes.

Example:
# vxmake -g mydg -Uraid5 \
vol r5vol \
plex=raidplex,raidlog1,\
raidlog2
vxvol [-g diskgroup] start volume
Initializes and starts a volume for use.

Example:
# vxvol -g mydg start r5vol
778
Command reference
Table D-6
Creating volumes (continued)
Command
Description
vxvol [-g
diskgroup] init zero \
volume
Initializes and zeros out a volume for

use.
Example:
# vxvol -g mydg init zero \
myvol
Table D-7
Administering volumes
Command
Description
vxassist [-g diskgroup] mirror \

volume [attributes]
Adds a mirror to a volume.

See Adding a mirror to a volume
on page 612.
Example:
# vxassist -g mydg mirror \
myvol mydg10
vxassist [-g diskgroup] remove \

mirror volume [attributes]
Removes a mirror from a volume.

See Removing a mirror on page 615.
Example:
# vxassist -g mydg remove \
mirror myvol \!mydg11
Note: The ! character is a special

character in some shells. This example
vxassist [-g diskgroup] \
{growto|growby} volume length
Grows a volume to a specified size or

by a specified amount.
Example:
# vxassist -g mydg growby \
myvol 10g
779
Command reference
Table D-7
Administering volumes (continued)
Command
Description
vxassist [-g diskgroup] \

{shrinkto|shrinkby} volume length
Shrinks a volume to a specified size or

by a specified amount.
Example:
# vxassist -g mydg shrinkto \
myvol 20g
vxresize -b -F vxfs [-g diskgroup] \ Resizes a volume and the underlying

volume length diskname ...
Veritas File System.
Example:
# vxresize -b -F vxfs \
-g mydg myvol 20g mydg10 \
mydg11
vxsnap [-g diskgroup] prepare volume \Prepares a volume for instant snapshots
[drl=on|sequential|off]
and for DRL logging.
See Adding an instant snap DCO and
DCO volume on page 340.
Example:
# vxsnap -g mydg prepare \
myvol drl=on
vxsnap [-g diskgroup] make \

source=volume\
/newvol=snapvol\
[/nmirror=number]
Takes a full-sized instant snapshot of a

volume by breaking off plexes of the
original volume.
See Creating instant snapshots
on page 339.
Example:
source=myvol/\
newvol=mysnpvol/\
nmirror=2
780
Command reference
Table D-7
Command
Description

source=volume/snapvol=snapvol
Takes a full-sized instant snapshot of a

volume using a prepared empty volume.
See Creating a volume for use as a
full-sized instant or linked break-off
snapshot on page 344.
on page 339.
Example:
source=myvol/snapvol=snpvol
vxmake [-g diskgroup] cache \

cache_object cachevolname=volume \
[regionsize=size]
Creates a cache object for use by

space-optimized instant snapshots.
See Creating a shared cache object
on page 342.
A cache volume must have already been
created. After creating the cache object,
enable the cache object with the
vxcache start command.
For example:
# vxassist -g mydg make \
cvol 1g layout=mirror \
init=active mydg16 mydg17
# vxmake -g mydg cache cobj \
cachevolname=cvol
# vxcache -g mydg start cobj

source=volume/newvol=snapvol\
/cache=cache_object
Takes a space-optimized instant

snapshot of a volume.
on page 339.
Example:
source=myvol/\
newvol=mysosvol/\
cache=cobj
781
Command reference
Table D-7
Command
Description
vxsnap [-g diskgroup] refresh snapshotRefreshes a snapshot from its original

volume.
See Refreshing an instant
space-optimized snapshot on page 361.
Example:
# vxsnap -g mydg refresh \
mysnpvol
vxsnap [-g diskgroup] dis snapshot
Turns a snapshot into an independent

volume.
See Dissociating an instant snapshot
on page 363.
Example:
# vxsnap -g mydg dis mysnpvol
vxsnap [-g diskgroup] unprepare \

volume
Removes support for instant snapshots

and DRL logging from a volume.
Example:
# vxsnap -g mydg unprepare \
myvol
vxassist [-g diskgroup] relayout \

volume [layout=layout] \
[relayout_options]
Performs online relayout of a volume.

See Performing online relayout
on page 606.
Example:
# vxassist -g mydg relayout \
vol2 layout=stripe
782
Command reference
Table D-7
Command
Description
vxassist [-g diskgroup] relayout \

volume layout=raid5 \
stripeunit=W \
ncol=N
Relays out a volume as a RAID-5

volume with stripe width W and N
columns.
See Performing online relayout
on page 606.
Example:
# vxassist -g mydg relayout \
vol3 layout=raid5 \
stripeunit=16 ncol=4
vxrelayout [-g diskgroup] -o bg \

reverse volume
Reverses the direction of a paused

volume relayout.
See Volume sets on page 93.
Example:
# vxrelayout -g mydg -o bg \
reverse vol3
vxassist [-g diskgroup] convert \

volume [layout=layout] \
[convert_options]
Converts between a layered volume and

a non-layered volume layout.
Example:
# vxassist -g mydg convert \
vol3 layout=stripe-mirror
vxassist [-g diskgroup] remove \

volume volume
Removes a volume.
See Removing a volume on page 662.
Example:
# vxassist -g mydg remove \
myvol
783
Command reference
Table D-8
Command
Description
command [-g diskgroup] -t tasktag \

[options] [arguments]
Specifies a task tag to a VxVM

command.
See Specifying task tags on page 602.
Example:
# vxrecover -g mydg \
-t mytask -b mydg05
vxtask [-h] [-g diskgroup] list
Lists tasks running on a system.

See Using the vxtask command
on page 604.
Example:
# vxtask -h -g mydg list
vxtask monitor task
Monitors the progress of a task.

on page 604.
Example:
# vxtask monitor mytask
vxtask pause task
Suspends operation of a task.

on page 604.
Example:
# vxtask pause mytask
vxtask -p [-g diskgroup] list
Lists all paused tasks.

on page 604.
Example:
# vxtask -p -g mydg list
784
Command reference
Table D-8
Monitoring and controlling tasks (continued)
Command
Description
vxtask resume task
Resumes a paused task.

on page 604.
Example:
# vxtask resume mytask
Cancels a task and attempts to reverse

its effects.
vxtask abort task

on page 604.
Example:
# vxtask abort mytask

Manual pages are organized into the following sections:
1M
Administrative commands.
File formats.
Section 1M administrative commands

Table D-9 lists the manual pages in section 1M for commands that are used to
administer Veritas Volume Manager.
Table D-9
Section 1M manual pages
Name
Description
vxassist
Create, relayout, convert, mirror, backup,

grow, shrink, delete, and move volumes.
vxcache
Administer the cache object for

space-optimized snapshots.
785
Command reference
Table D-9
Section 1M manual pages (continued)
Name
Description
vxcached
Daemon that monitors and resizes cache

volumes when required.
vxcdsconvert
Make disks and disk groups portable

between systems.
vxclustadm
Start, stop, and reconfigure a cluster.
vxcmdlog
Administer command logging.
vxconfigbackup
Back up disk group configuration.
vxconfigbackupd
Disk group configuration backup daemon.
vxconfigd
Veritas Volume Manager configuration

daemon
vxconfigrestore
Restore disk group configuration.
vxdco
Perform operations on version 0 DCO

objects and DCO volumes.
vxdctl
Control the volume configuration daemon.
vxddladm
Device Discovery Layer subsystem

administration.
vxdefault
Manage the defaults set in

/etc/default/vxsf that configure
settings such as SmartMove, thin
reclamation, automatic starting of volumes,
and minor numbers for shared disk groups.
vxdg
Manage Veritas Volume Manager disk

groups.
vxdisk
Define and manage Veritas Volume

Manager disks.
vxdiskadd
Add one or more disks for use with Veritas

Volume Manager.
vxdiskadm
Menu-driven Veritas Volume Manager disk

administration.
vxdisksetup
Configure a disk for use with Veritas Volume

Manager.
786
Command reference
Table D-9
Name
Description
vxdiskunsetup
Deconfigure a disk from use with Veritas

Volume Manager.
vxdmpadm
DMP subsystem administration.
vxdmptune
Display and change values of DMP tunable

parameters. This utility is deprecated. Use
the vxdmpadm utility instead.
vxedit
Create, remove, and modify Veritas Volume

Manager records.
vxencap
Encapsulate partitions on a new disk.
vxevac
Evacuate all volumes from a disk.
vxinfo
Print accessibility and usability of volumes.
vxinitrd
Create initial ramdisk images for preloading

VxVM modules.
vxinstall
Menu-driven Veritas Volume Manager initial

configuration.
vxintro
Introduction to the Veritas Volume Manager

utilities.
vxiod
Start, stop, and report on Veritas Volume

Manager kernel I/O threads.
vxmake
Create Veritas Volume Manager

configuration records.
vxmemstat
Display memory statistics for Veritas Volume

Manager.
vxmend
Mend simple problems in configuration

records.
vxmirror
Mirror volumes on a disk or control default

mirroring.
vxnotify
Display Veritas Volume Manager

configuration events.
vxplex
Perform Veritas Volume Manager operations

on plexes.
787
Command reference
Table D-9
Name
Description
vxprint
Display records from the Veritas Volume

Manager configuration.
vxr5check
Verify RAID-5 volume parity.
vxreattach
Reattach disk drives that have become

accessible again.
vxrecover
Perform volume recovery operations.
vxrelayout
Convert online storage from one layout to

another.
vxrelocd
Monitor Veritas Volume Manager for failure

events and relocate failed subdisks.
vxresize
Change the length of a volume containing

a file system.
vxrootadm
Grow or take snapshots of the boot disk.
vxrootmir
Mirror root disk to an alternate disk.
vxscsiinq
Display SCSI inquiry data.
vxsd

on subdisks.
vxsnap
Enable DRL on a volume, and create and

administer instant snapshots.
vxstat
Veritas Volume Manager statistics

management utility.
vxtask
List and administer Veritas Volume Manager

tasks.
vxtrace
Trace operations on volumes.
vxtranslog
Administer transaction logging.
vxtune
Adjust Veritas Volume Replicator and

Veritas Volume Manager tunables.
vxunreloc
Move a hot-relocated subdisk back to its

original disk.
788
Command reference
Table D-9
Name
Description
vxunroot
Remove Veritas Volume Manager hooks

from encapsulated root volumes.
vxvol

on volumes.
vxvoltune
Display and change values of VxVM tunable

parameters. This utility is deprecated. Use
the vxtune command instead.
vxvset
Create and administer volume sets.
Section 4 file formats

Table D-10 lists the manual pages in section 4 that describe the format of files that
are used by Veritas Volume Manager.
Table D-10
Section 4 manual pages
Name
Description
vol_pattern
Disk group search specifications.
vxmake
vxmake description file.

Symbolic links to all VxFS command executables are installed in the /opt/VRTS/bin
directory. Add this directory to the end of your PATH environment variable to access
the commands.
Table D-11 describes the VxFS-specific commands.
Table D-11
VxFS commands
Command
Description
df
Reports the number of free disk blocks and inodes for a VxFS file system.
fcladm
Administers VxFS File Change Logs.
ff
Lists file names and inode information for a VxFS file system.
fiostat
Administers file I/O statistics
789
Command reference
Table D-11
VxFS commands (continued)
Command
Description
fsadm
Resizes or defragments a VxFS file system.
fsapadm
Administers VxFS allocation policies.
fscat
Cats a VxFS file system.
fscdsadm
Performs online CDS operations.
fscdsconv
Performs offline CDS migration tasks on VxFS file systems.
fscdstask
Performs various CDS operations.
fsck
Checks and repairs a VxFS file system.

Due to a behavioral issue with the Linux fsck wrapper, you must run the VxFS fsck
command, /opt/VRTS/bin/fsck, when specifying any option with an equals sign (=) in it.
For example:
# /opt/VRTS/bin/fsck -o zapvol=MyVolName /dev/rdsk/c0t0d1s1
fsckpt_restore
Restores file systems from VxFS Storage Checkpoints.
fsclustadm
Manages cluster-mounted VxFS file systems.
fsdb
Debugs VxFS file systems.
fsdedupadm
Administers data deduplication.
fsfreeze
Freezes VxFS file systems and executes a user command on the file systems.
fsmap
Displays VxFS file system extent information.
fsppadm
Administers VxFS placement policies.
fsppmk
Creates placement policies.
fstag
Creates, deletes, or lists file tags.
fstyp
Returns the type of file system on a specified disk partition.
fsvmap
Maps volumes of VxFS file systems to files.
fsvoladm
Administers VxFS volumes.
glmconfig
Configures Group Lock Managers (GLM).
glmdump
Reports stuck Group Lock Managers (GLM) locks in a cluster file system.
790
Command reference
Table D-11
VxFS commands (continued)
Command
Description
glmstat
Group Lock Managers (GLM) statistics gathering utility.
mkdstfs
SmartTier file system creation utility.
mkfs
Constructs a VxFS file system.
mount
Mounts a VxFS file system.
ncheck
Generates path names from inode numbers for a VxFS file system.
setext
Sets extent attributes on a file in a VxFS file system.
vxcompress
Compresses and uncompresses files.
vxdump
Incrementally dumps file systems.
vxedquota
Edits user quotas for a VxFS file system.
vxenablef
Enables specific VxFS features.
vxfilesnap
Makes a copy-on-write copy of a file in a VxFS file system.
vxfsconvert
Converts an unmounted file system to VxFS or upgrades a VxFS disk layout version.
vxfsstat
Displays file system statistics.
vxlsino
Looks up VxFS reverse path names.
vxquot
Displays file system ownership summaries for a VxFS file system.
vxquota
Displays user disk quotas and usage on a VxFS file system.
vxquotaoff
vxquotaon
Turns quotas on and off for a VxFS file system.
vxrepquota
Summarizes quotas for a VxFS file system.
vxrestore
Restores a file system incrementally.
vxtunefs
Tunes a VxFS file system.
vxupgrade
Upgrades the disk layout of a mounted VxFS file system.
791
Command reference

This release includes the following online manual pages as part of the VRTSvxfs
rpm. These are installed in the appropriate directories under /opt/VRTS/man (add
this to your MANPATH environment variable), but does not update the windex
database. To ensure that new VxFS manual pages display correctly, update the
windex database after installing VRTSvxfs.
See the catman(1M) manual page.
Table D-12 describes the VxFS-specific section 1 manual pages.
Table D-12
Section 1
Description
fiostat
Administers file I/O statistics.
fsmap
Displays VxFS file system extent information.
getext
Gets extent attributes for a VxFS file system.
setext
Sets extent attributes on a file in a VxFS file system.
vxcompress
Compresses or uncompresses files.
vxfilesnap
Makes a copy-on-write copy of a file in a VxFS file system.
Table D-13 describes the VxFS-specific section 1M manual pages.

Table D-13
Section 1M manual pages
Section 1M
Description
df_vxfs
Reports the number of free disk blocks and inodes for a VxFS file system.
fcladm
Administers VxFS File Change Logs.
ff_vxfs
Lists file names and inode information for a VxFS file system.
fsadm_vxfs
Resizes or reorganizes a VxFS file system.
fsapadm
Administers VxFS allocation policies.
fscat_vxfs
Cats a VxFS file system.
fscdsadm
Performs online CDS operations.
fscdsconv
Performs offline CDS migration tasks on VxFS file systems.
792
Command reference
Table D-13
Section 1M
Description
fscdstask
Performs various CDS operations.
fsck_vxfs
Checks and repairs a VxFS file system.
fsckptadm
Performs various administrative tasks like creating, deleting, converting, setting, and displaying
the quota on a Storage Checkpoint.
Quota display can be formatted in a human-friendly way, using the -H option.
fsckpt_restore Restores file systems from VxFS Storage Checkpoints.

fsclustadm
Manages cluster-mounted VxFS file systems.
fsdbencap
Encapsulates databases.
fsdb_vxfs
Debugs VxFS file systems.
fsdedupadm
Administers data deduplication.
fsfreeze
Freezes VxFS file systems and executes a user command on the file systems.
fsppadm
Administers VxFS placement policies.
fstyp_vxfs
Returns the type of file system on a specified disk partition.
fsvmap
Maps volumes of VxFS file systems to files.
fsvoladm
Administers VxFS volumes.
glmconfig
Configures Group Lock Managers (GLM). This functionality is available only with the Symantec
Storage Foundation Cluster File System product.
glmdump
Reports stuck Group Lock Managers (GLM) locks in a cluster file system.
mkdstfs
SmartTier file system creation utility.
mkfs_vxfs
Constructs a VxFS file system.
mount_vxfs
Mounts a VxFS file system.
ncheck_vxfs
Generates path names from inode numbers for a VxFS file system.
quot
Summarizes ownership on a VxFS file system.
quotacheck_vxfs Checks VxFS file system quota consistency.

vxdiskusg
Generates VxFS disk accounting data by user ID.
793
Command reference
Table D-13
Section 1M
Description
vxdump
Incrementally dumps file systems.
vxedquota
Edits user quotas for a VxFS file system.
vxenable
Enables specific VxFS features.
vxfsconvert
Converts an unmounted file system to VxFS or upgrades a VxFS disk layout version.
vxfsstat
Displays file system statistics.
vxlsino
Looks up VxFS reverse path names.
vxquot
Displays file system ownership summaries for a VxFS file system.
vxquota
Displays user disk quotas and usage on a VxFS file system.
vxquotaoff
vxquotaon
Turns quotas on and off for a VxFS file system.
vxrepquota
Summarizes quotas for a VxFS file system.
vxrestore
Restores a file system incrementally.
vxtunefs
Tunes a VxFS file system.
vxupgrade
Upgrades the disk layout of a mounted VxFS file system.

Table D-14
Section 3
Description
vxfs_ap_alloc2
Allocates an fsap_info2 structure.
vxfs_ap_assign_ckpt
Assigns an allocation policy to file data and metadata in a Storage

Checkpoint.
vxfs_ap_assign_ckptchain
Assigns an allocation policy for all of the Storage Checkpoints of a VxFS

file system.
vxfs_ap_assign_ckptdef
Assigns a default allocation policy for new Storage Checkpoints of a VxFS

file system.
vxfs_ap_assign_file
Assigns an allocation policy for file data and metadata.
vxfs_ap_assign_file_pat
Assigns a pattern-based allocation policy for a directory.
794
Command reference
Table D-14
Section 3 manual pages (continued)
Section 3
Description
vxfs_ap_assign_fs
Assigns an allocation policy for all file data and metadata within a specified
file system.
vxfs_ap_assign_fs_pat
Assigns an pattern-based allocation policy for a file system.
vxfs_ap_define
Defines a new allocation policy.
vxfs_ap_define2
Defines a new allocation policy.
vxfs_ap_enforce_ckpt
Reorganizes blocks in a Storage Checkpoint to match a specified

allocation policy.
vxfs_ap_enforce_ckptchain
Enforces the allocation policy for all of the Storage Checkpoints of a VxFS
file system.
vxfs_ap_enforce_file
Ensures that all blocks in a specified file match the file allocation policy.
vxfs_ap_enforce_file2
Reallocates blocks in a file to match allocation policies.
vxfs_ap_enforce_range
Reallocates blocks in a file within a specified range to match allocation

policies.
vxfs_ap_enumerate
Returns information about all allocation policies.
vxfs_ap_enumerate2
Returns information about all allocation policies.
vxf_ap_free2
Frees one or more fsap_info2 structures.
vxfs_ap_query
Returns information about a specific allocation policy.
vxfs_ap_query2
Returns information about a specific allocation policy.
vxfs_ap_query_ckpt
Returns information about allocation policies for each Storage Checkpoint.
vxfs_ap_query_ckptdef
Retrieves the default allocation policies for new Storage Checkpoints of

a VxFS file system
vxfs_ap_query_file
Returns information about allocation policies assigned to a specified file.
vxfs_ap_query_file_pat
Returns information about the pattern-based allocation policy assigned

to a directory.
vxfs_ap_query_fs
Retrieves allocation policies assigned to a specified file system.
vxfs_ap_query_fs_pat
Returns information about the pattern-based allocation policy assigned

to a file system.
vxfs_ap_remove
Deletes a specified allocation policy.
795
Command reference
Table D-14
Section 3
Description
vxfs_fcl_sync
Sets a synchronization point in the VxFS File Change Log.
vxfs_fiostats_dump
Returns file and file range I/O statistics.
vxfs_fiostats_getconfig
Gets file range I/O statistics configuration values.
vxfs_fiostats_set
Turns on and off file range I/O statistics and resets statistics counters.
vxfs_get_ioffsets
Obtains VxFS inode field offsets.
vxfs_inotopath
Returns path names for a given inode number.
vxfs_inostat
Gets the file statistics based on the inode number.
vxfs_inotofd
Gets the file descriptor based on the inode number.
vxfs_nattr_check
Checks for the existence of named data streams.
vxfs_nattr_fcheck
vxfs_nattr_link
Links to a named data stream.
vxfs_nattr_open
Opens a named data stream.
vxfs_nattr_rename
Renames a named data stream.
vxfs_nattr_unlink
Removes a named data stream.
vxfs_nattr_utimes
Sets access and modification times for named data streams.
vxfs_vol_add
Adds a volume to a multi-volume file system.
vxfs_vol_clearflags
Clears specified flags on volumes in a multi-volume file system.
vxfs_vol_deencapsulate
De-encapsulates a volume from a multi-volume file system.
vxfs_vol_encapsulate
Encapsulates a volume within a multi-volume file system.
vxfs_vol_encapsulate_bias
Encapsulates a volume within a multi-volume file system.
vxfs_vol_enumerate
Returns information about the volumes within a multi-volume file system.
vxfs_vol_queryflags
Queries flags on volumes in a multi-volume file system.
vxfs_vol_remove
Removes a volume from a multi-volume file system.
vxfs_vol_resize
Resizes a specific volume within a multi-volume file system.
vxfs_vol_setflags
Sets specified flags on volumes in a multi-volume file system.
796
Command reference
Table D-14
Section 3
Description
vxfs_vol_stat
Returns free space information about a component volume within a

multi-volume file system.

Table D-15
Section 4
Description
fs_vxfs
Provides the format of a VxFS file system volume.
inode_vxfs
Provides the format of a VxFS file system inode.
tunefstab
Describes the VxFS file system tuning parameters table.

Table D-16
Section 7
Description
vxfsio
Describes the VxFS file system control functions.
797
Index
Symbols
/boot/grub/menu.lst file 691
/dev/vx/dmp directory 36
/dev/vx/rdmp directory 36
/etc/default/vxassist file 117, 554
/etc/default/vxdg file 626
/etc/fstab file 662
/etc/grub.conf file 691
/etc/init.d/vxvm-recover file 558
/etc/lilo.conf file 691
/etc/volboot file 55
/etc/vx/darecs file 55
/etc/vx/dmppolicy.info file 234
/etc/vx/volboot file 633
A
A/A disk arrays 35
A/A-A disk arrays 35
A/P disk arrays 35
A/P-C disk arrays 3536
A/PF disk arrays 36
A/PG disk arrays 36
about
DMP 28
Veritas Operations Manager 31
access port 35
active path attribute 230
active paths
devices 231232
ACTIVE state 333
Active/Active disk arrays 35
Active/Passive disk arrays 35
adaptive load-balancing 234
adaptiveminq policy 234
adding disks 279
allocation policies 178
default 178
extent 31
extent based 30, 99
APM
configuring 249
array policy module (APM)

configuring 249
array ports
disabling for DMP 240
displaying information about 219
enabling for DMP 241
array support library (ASL) 188
Array Volume ID
device naming 264
arrays
DMP support 187
ASL
array support library 187188
Asymmetric Active/Active disk arrays 35
ATTACHING state 333
attributes
active 230
autogrow 342, 347
autogrowby 342
cache 347
cachesize 347
dcolen 91, 381
for specifying storage 146
highwatermark 342
maxautogrow 342
maxdev 637
mirdg 355
mirvol 355
ncachemirror 347
ndcomirror 381
ndcomirs 340
newvol 353
nmirror 353
nomanual 230
nopreferred 230
preferred priority 231
primary 231
secondary 231
setting for paths 230, 232
snapvol 349, 355
source 349, 355
standby 231
Index
attributes (continued)
syncing 339, 367
autogrow
tuning 369
autogrow attribute 342, 347
autogrowby attribute 342
autotrespass mode 35
B
backups
created using snapshots 339
creating for volumes 312
creating using instant snapshots 339
creating using third-mirror snapshots 371
for multiple volumes 356, 376
of disk group configuration 654
of FSS disk group configuration 654
bad block remapping 161
balanced path policy 235
base minor number 635
BIOS
restrictions 680
blkclear mount option 161
block based architecture 105
blockmap for a snapshot file system 414
blocks on disks 52
boot disk
encapsulating 690
mirroring 690
unencapsulating 699
booting root volumes 689
BROKEN state 333
buffered file systems 98
buffered I/O 292
C
cache
for space-optimized instant snapshots 314
cache advisories 294
cache attribute 347
cache objects
creating 342
enabling 343
listing snapshots in 369
caches
creating 342
deleting 371
finding out snapshots configured on 371
caches (continued)
growing 370
listing snapshots in 369
removing 371
resizing 370
shrinking 370
stopping 371
used by space-optimized instant snapshots 314
cachesize attribute 347
campus clusters
serial split brain condition in 646
cascade instant snapshots 334
cascaded snapshot hierarchies
creating 360
categories
disks 188
CDS
compatible disk groups 626
cds attribute 626
check_all policy 247
check_alternate policy 247
check_disabled policy 247
check_periodic policy 248
checkpoint interval 740
cio
Concurrent I/O 167
cloned disks 93, 640
cluster mount 97
clusters
use of DMP in 43
vol_fmr_logsz tunable 747
columns
changing number of 609
in striping 60
mirroring in striped-mirror volumes 144
commands
cron 109
fsadm 109
getext 181
setext 181
compressing files 100
concatenated volumes 57, 139
concatenated-mirror volumes
creating 142
defined 65
recovery 140
concatenation 57
configuration backup and restoration 654
799
Index
configuration changes
monitoring using vxnotify 605
configuration database
listing disks with 644
metadata 643
reducing size of 589
Configuring DMP
using templates 731
contiguous reservation 180
Controller ID
displaying 218
controllers
disabling in DMP 207
mirroring across 150
specifying to vxassist 146
converting a data Storage Checkpoint to a nodata
Storage Checkpoint 390
convosync mount option 157, 162
copy-on-write
used by instant snapshots 332
copy-on-write technique 319, 385
copymaps 8990
creating a multi-volume support file system 462
creating file systems with large files 165
creating files with mkfs 153, 156
cron 109, 175
cron sample script 176
customized naming
DMP nodes 265
D
data change object
DCO 89
data copy 291
data redundancy 63, 66
data Storage Checkpoints definition 322
data synchronous I/O 162, 292
data transfer 291
data volume configuration 80
database replay logs and sequential DRL 79
databases
integrity of data in 312
resilvering 79
resynchronizing 79
datainlog mount option 161
DCO
adding version 0 DCOs to volumes 380
considerations for disk layout 595
data change object 89
dissociating version 0 DCOs from volumes 383
effect on disk group split and join 595
instant snap version 89
log plexes 87
log volume 89
moving log plexes 382
reattaching version 0 DCOs to volumes 383
removing version 0 DCOs from volumes 383
specifying storage for version 0 plexes 382
used with DRL 79
version 0 89
version 20 8990
versioning 89
dcolen attribute 91, 381
DDL 38
Device Discovery Layer 191
default
allocation policy 178
defaultdg 586
defragmentation 109
extent 175
scheduling with cron 175
delaylog 98
delaylog mount option 159
device discovery
introduced 38
partial 186
Device Discovery Layer (DDL) 38, 191
device names 49
configuring persistent 266
user-specified 265
device nodes
controlling access for volume sets 457
displaying access for volume sets 457
enabling access for volume sets 456
for volume sets 455
devices
adding foreign 203
fabric 186
JBOD 187
listing all 192
making invisible to VxVM 204
nopriv 678
path redundancy 231232
800
Index
direct data transfer 291

direct I/O 291
directory reorganization 176
dirty flags set on volumes 77
dirty region logging.. See DRL
dirty regions 748
disabled file system
snapshot 328
disabled paths 209
discovered direct I/O 292
disk access records
stored in /etc/vx/darecs 55
disk arrays
A/A 35
A/A-A 35
A/P 35
A/P-G 36
A/PF 36
Active/Active 35
Active/Passive 35
adding disks to DISKS category 200
Asymmetric Active/Active 35
defined 50
excluding support for 198
JBOD devices 187
listing excluded 199
listing supported 197
listing supported disks in DISKS category 199
multipathed 55
re-including support for 198
removing disks from DISKS category 202
supported with DMP 197
Disk Group Split/Join 315
disk groups
avoiding conflicting minor numbers on import 634
clearing locks on disks 633
compatible with CDS 626
creating with old version number 623
defined 51
deporting 627
destroying 653
determining the default disk group 585
disabling 653
displaying boot disk group 586
displaying default disk group 586
displaying free space in 624
displaying version of 622
disk groups (continued)

features supported by version 617
forcing import of 634
free space in 549
importing 628
importing with cloned disks 640
ISP 657
joining 591, 600
kernel logs and configuration databases 643
layout of DCO plexes 595
limitations of move
split. See and join
listing objects affected by a move 594
moving between systems 631
moving disks between 588, 597
moving licensed EMC disks between 597
moving objects between 589, 596
recovering destroyed 653
recovery from failed reconfiguration 593
removing disks from 626
renaming 644
reorganizing 589
reserving minor numbers 634
restarting moved volumes 601
serial split brain condition 646
setting default disk group 586
splitting 590, 599
upgrading version of 622
version 617, 622
disk layout
Version 10 760
Version 6 760
Version 7 760
Version 8 760
Version 9 760
disk names
configuring persistent 266
disks 188
adding 279
adding to DISKS category 200
array support library 188
categories 188
changing naming scheme 263
clearing locks on 633
cloned 640
complete failure messages 548
configuring newly added 185
configuring persistent names 266
determining failed 548
801
Index
disks (continued)
disabled path 209
discovery of by DMP 185
discovery of by VxVM 187
disk access records file 55
disk arrays 50
displaying information 261262
displaying information about 261, 624
displaying naming scheme 264
displaying spare 550
dynamic LUN expansion 257
EFI 674, 680
enabled path 209
encapsulation 673, 679
enclosures 38
excluding free space from hot-relocation use 553
failure handled by hot-relocation 545
formatting 270
handling clones 93
handling duplicated identifiers 93
hot-relocation 543
initializing 271
installing 270
invoking discovery of 189
layout of DCO plexes 595
listing tags on 643
listing those supported in JBODs 199
making available for hot-relocation 551
making free space available for hot-relocation
use 554
marking as spare 551
mirroring boot disk 690
mirroring root disk 690
mirroring volumes on 613
moving between disk groups 588, 597
moving disk groups between systems 631
moving volumes from 587
nopriv devices 678
OTHER_DISKS category 188
partial failure messages 547
postponing replacement 667
primary path 209
reinitializing 279
releasing from disk groups 653
removing 280, 667
removing from disk groups 626
removing from DISKS category 202
removing from pool of hot-relocation spares 552
disks (continued)
removing from VxVM control 626, 663
removing with subdisks 282283
renaming 283
replacing 667
replacing removed 670
root disk 679
scanning for 185
secondary path 209
setting tags on 642
spare 549
UDID flag 95
unique identifier 95
VxVM 52
writing a new identifier to 639
DISKS category 188
adding disks 200
listing supported disks 199
removing disks 202
displaying
DMP nodes 213
HBA information 218
redundancy levels 231
supported disk arrays 197
displaying mounted file systems 172
displaying statistics
erroneous I/Os 227
queued I/Os 227
DMP
check_all restore policy 247
check_alternate restore policy 247
check_disabled restore policy 247
check_periodic restore policy 248
configuring disk devices 185
configuring DMP path restoration policies 247
configuring I/O throttling 244
configuring response to I/O errors 242, 246
disabling array ports 240
disabling controllers 240
disabling multi-pathing 204
disabling paths 240
disk discovery 185
displaying DMP database information 207
displaying DMP node for a path 212
displaying DMP node for an enclosure 212213
displaying DMP nodes 213
displaying information about array ports 219
displaying information about controllers 217
802
Index
DMP (continued)
displaying information about enclosures 218
displaying information about paths 208
displaying LUN group for a node 214
displaying paths controlled by DMP node 215
displaying paths for a controller 215
displaying paths for an array port 216
displaying recoveryoption values 246
displaying status of DMP path restoration
thread 249
displaying TPD information 219
dynamic multi-pathing 34
enabling array ports 241
enabling controllers 241
enabling multi-pathing 206
enabling paths 241
enclosure-based naming 37
gathering I/O statistics 224
in a clustered environment 43
load balancing 42
logging levels 725
metanodes 36
nodes 36
path aging 724
path failover mechanism 41
path-switch tunable 728
renaming an enclosure 242
restore policy 247
scheduling I/O on secondary paths 237
setting the DMP restore polling interval 247
stopping the DMP restore daemon 248
tuning with templates 731
vxdmpadm 210
DMP nodes
displaying consolidated information 213
setting names 265
DMP support
JBOD devices 187
dmp_cache_open tunable 723
dmp_daemon_count tunable 724
dmp_delayq_interval tunable 724
dmp_fast_recovery tunable 724
dmp_health_time tunable 724
dmp_log_level tunable 725
dmp_low_impact_probe 725
dmp_lun_retry_timeout tunable 726
dmp_monitor_fabric tunable 726
dmp_monitor_osevent tunable 727
dmp_monitor_ownership tunable 727
dmp_native_support tunable 727

dmp_path_age tunable 727
dmp_pathswitch_blks_shift tunable 728
dmp_probe_idle_lun tunable 728
dmp_probe_threshold tunable 728
dmp_restore_cycles tunable 729
dmp_restore_interval tunable 729
dmp_restore_state tunable 730
dmp_scsi_timeout tunable 730
dmp_sfg_threshold tunable 730
dmp_stat_interval tunable 730
DRL
dirty region logging 78
hot-relocation limitations 545
log subdisks 79
maximum number of dirty regions 748
minimum number of sectors 748
sequential 79
use of DCO with 79
dynamic LUN expansion 257
E
EFI disks 674, 680
EMC arrays
moving disks between disk groups 597
EMC PowerPath
coexistence with DMP 190
EMC Symmetrix
autodiscovery 189
enabled paths
displaying 209
encapsulating disks 673, 679
encapsulating volumes 460
encapsulation
failure of 677
root disk 691
supported layouts for root disk 682
unsupported layouts for root disk 685
enclosure-based naming 38, 263
DMP 37
enclosures 38
path redundancy 231232
setting attributes of paths 230, 232
enhanced data integrity modes 98
ENOSPC 399
erroneous I/Os
displaying statistics 227
803
Index
error messages
Disk for disk group not found 633
Disk group has no valid configuration copies 633
Disk group version doesn't support feature 617
Disk is in use by another host 633
Disk is used by one or more subdisks 626
Disk not moving
but subdisks on it are 594
import failed 633
It is not possible to encapsulate 677
No valid disk found containing disk group 633
The encapsulation operation failed 677
tmpsize too small to perform this relayout 73
unsupported layout 677
vxdg listmove failed 594
errord daemon 40
errors
handling transient errors 726
expansion 109
explicit failover mode 36
Extensible Firmware Interface (EFI) disks 674, 680
extent 30, 99, 177
attributes 99, 177
reorganization 176
extent allocation 31
aligned 178
control 99, 177
fixed size 177
extent attributes 99, 177
external quotas file 702
F
fabric devices 186
FAILFAST flag 41
failover mode 35
failure in RAID-5 handled by hot-relocation 545
FastResync
effect of growing volume on 91
limitations 92
Non-Persistent 85
Persistent 8586, 312
size of bitmap 747
snapshot enhancements 330
use with snapshots 84
FastResync/cache object metadata cache size
tunable 750
fc_foff 712
file
sparse 179
file compression 100
file system
block size 183
buffering 98
displaying mounted 172
file systems
unmounting 662
fileset
primary 317
FileSnaps
about 324
data mining, reporting, and testing 409
virtual desktops 408
write intensive applications 409
backup 326
best practices 408
block map fragmentation 326
concurrent I/O 325
copy-on-write 325
creation 406
properties 324
reading from 326
using 407
fixed extent size 177
fixed write size 179
FlashSnap 310
FMR.. See FastResync
foreign devices
adding 203
formatting disks 270
fragmentation
monitoring 175176
reorganization facilities 175
reporting 175
fragmented file system characteristics 175
free space in disk groups 549
free space monitoring 174
Freeze 101
freeze 294
freezing and thawing, relation to Storage
Checkpoints 317
fsadm 109
how to minimize file system free space
fragmentation 171
how to reorganize a file system 171
how to resize a file system 168
reporting extent fragmentation 176
804
Index
fsadm (continued)
scheduling defragmentation using cron 176
thin reclamation 436
fsadm_vxfs 166
fscat 413
fsck 390
fsckptadm
Storage Checkpoint administration 386
FSS configuration backup and restoration 654
FSS disk groups
fstyp
how to determine the file system type 173
fsvoladm 462
full-sized instant snapshots 331
creating 349
creating volumes for use as 344
fullinst snapshot type 366
G
get I/O parameter ioctl 295
getext 181
GPT labels 674, 680
GUID Partition Table (GPT) labels 674, 680
H
HBA information
displaying 218
HBAs
listing ports 193
listing supported 192
listing targets 193
highwatermark attribute 342
hot-relocation
configuration summary 550
daemon 544
defined 78
detecting disk failure 545
detecting plex failure 545
detecting RAID-5 subdisk failure 545
excluding free space on disks from use by 553
limitations 545
making free space on disks available for use
by 554
marking disks as spare 551
modifying behavior of 558
notifying users other than root 559
hot-relocation (continued)
operation of 543
preventing from running 559
reducing performance impact of recovery 559
removing disks from spare pool 552
subdisk relocation 550
subdisk relocation messages 555
unrelocating subdisks 555
unrelocating subdisks using vxunreloc 556
use of free space in disk groups 549
use of spare disks 549
use of spare disks and free space 549
using only spare disks for 554
vxrelocd 544
how to access a Storage Checkpoint 388
how to create a Storage Checkpoint 387
how to determine the file system type 173
how to display mounted file systems 168
how to minimize file system free space
fragmentation 171
how to mount a Storage Checkpoint 388
how to remove a Storage Checkpoint 388
how to reorganize a file system 171
how to resize a file system 168
how to unmount a Storage Checkpoint 390
I
I/O
direct 291
gathering statistics for DMP 224
kernel threads 48
scheduling on secondary paths 237
sequential 292
synchronous 292
throttling 41
I/O operations
maximum size of 741
I/O policy
displaying 233
example 237
specifying 233
I/O requests
asynchronous 162
synchronous 161
I/O throttling 244
I/O throttling options
configuring 246
identifiers for tasks 602
805
Index
idle LUNs 728

implicit failover mode 35
Importing
ISP disk group 657
initialization
of disks 271
inode table 721
internal 721
sizes 721
inodes, block based 31
instant snap version
of DCOs 89
instant snapshots
backing up multiple volumes 356
cascaded 334
creating backups 339
creating for volume sets 357
creating full-sized 349
creating space-optimized 346
creating volumes for use as full-sized 344
dissociating 363
full-sized 331
improving performance of synchronization 368
reattaching 361
refreshing 361
removing 364
restoring volumes using 363
space-optimized 314
splitting hierarchies 364
synchronizing 367
intent log 29, 99
multi-volume file system support 460
intent log resizing 30
intent logging 313
internal inode table 721
internal quotas file 702
ioctl calls 741742
iSCSI parameters
administering with DDL 195
setting with vxddladm 195
ISP
disk groups 657
ISP disk group
Importing 657
Upgrading 657
J
JBOD
DMP support 187
JBODs
listing supported disks 199
removing disks from DISKS category 202
K
kernel logs
for disk groups 643
kernel tunable parameters 720
L
large files 105, 165
creating file systems with 165
mounting file systems with 166
largefiles mount option 166
layered volumes
defined 70, 140
striped-mirror 64
layouts
left-symmetric 68
types of volume 139
left-symmetric layout 68
LILO
restrictions 680
link objects 333
linked break-off snapshots 333
creating 354
linked third-mirror snapshots
reattaching 362
listing
DMP nodes 213
supported disk arrays 197
load balancing 35
displaying policy for 233
specifying policy for 233
local mount 97
lock clearing on disks 633
log mount option 157, 159
log subdisks
DRL 79
logdisk 145
logical units 35
logiosize mount option 160
logs
kernel 643
806
Index
logs (continued)
RAID-5 70, 77
specifying number for RAID-5 144
LUN 35
LUN expansion 257
LUN group failover 36
LUN groups
displaying details of 214
LUNs
idle 728
thin provisioning 425
M
Master Boot Record
restrictions 680
maxautogrow attribute 342
maxdev attribute 637
maximum I/O size 722
memory
granularity of allocation by VxVM 743
maximum size of pool for VxVM 743
minimum size of pool for VxVM 745
persistence of FastResync in 85
messages
complete disk failure 548
hot-relocation of subdisks 555
partial disk failure 547
metadata 643
multi-volume support 460
METADATA subdisks 694
metanodes
DMP 36
migrating to thin storage 425
mincache mount option 157, 161
minimum queue load balancing policy 235
minimum redundancy levels
displaying for a device 231
specifying for a device 232
minor numbers 634
mirbrk snapshot type 366
mirdg attribute 355
mirrored volumes
changing read policies for 151
configuring VxVM to create by default 613
creating 140
creating across controllers 150
creating across targets 148
defined 139
dirty region logging 78
mirrored volumes (continued)

DRL 78
FastResync 78
FR 78
logging 78
snapshots 84
mirrored-concatenated volumes
creating 141
defined 63
mirrored-stripe volumes
benefits of 63
creating 143
defined 140
mirroring
boot disk 690
defined 63
root disk 690
mirroring plus striping 64
mirrors
adding to volumes 612
creating snapshot 373
removing from volumes 615
specifying number of 141
mirvol attribute 355
mirvol snapshot type 366
mkfs
creating files with 153, 156
creating large files 166
modes
enhanced data integrity 98
monitoring fragmentation 175
mount 166
how to display mounted file systems 168
mounting a Storage Checkpoint 388
pseudo device 389
mount options 156
blkclear 161
choosing 156
combining 167
convosync 157, 162
datainlog 161
delaylog 98, 159
extended 99
largefiles 166
log 157, 159
logiosize 160
mincache 157, 161
nodatainlog 157, 161
tmplog 160
807
Index
mounted file system

displaying 172
mounting a file system
option combinations 167
with large files 166
mounting a Storage Checkpoint 390
mounting a Storage Checkpoint of a cluster file
system 390
mrl
keyword 232
multi-pathing
disabling 204
enabling 206
multi-volume file systems 459
Multi-Volume Support 451
multi-volume support
creating a MVS file system 462
multiple block operations 31
N
name space
preserved by Storage Checkpoints 386
names
changing for disk groups 644
defining for snapshot volumes 376
device 49
renaming disks 283
naming
DMP nodes 265
naming scheme
changing for disks 263
changing for TPD enclosures 267
displaying for disks 264
native asynchronous I/O
with cloned processes 723
ncachemirror attribute 347
ncheck 718
ndcomirror attribute 381
ndcomirs attribute 340
newvol attribute 353
nmirror attribute 352353
nodata Storage Checkpoints 390
nodata Storage Checkpoints definition 322
nodatainlog mount option 157, 161
nodes
DMP 36
nomanual path attribute 230
non-autotrespass mode 36
Non-Persistent FastResync 85
nopreferred path attribute 230
nopriv devices 678
O
O_SYNC 157
objects
physical 49
virtual 51
online invalid status 262
online relayout
changing number of columns 609
changing region size 612
changing speed of 612
changing stripe unit size 609
controlling progress of 611
defined 72
destination layouts 606
failure recovery 76
how it works 72
limitations 75
monitoring tasks for 611
pausing 611
performing 606
resuming 611
reversing direction of 612
specifying non-default 609
specifying plexes 610
specifying task tags for 610
temporary area 73
transformation characteristics 76
transformations and volume length 76
types of transformation 607
viewing status of 611
online status 262
ordered allocation 145, 148
OTHER_DISKS category 188
P
parity in RAID-5 66
partial device discovery 186
partition size
displaying the value of 233
specifying 235
partition table 694
partitions
number 50
slices 50
808
Index
path aging 724

path failover in DMP 41
pathgroups
creating 205
paths
setting attributes of 230, 232
performance
changing values of tunables 731, 754
improving for instant snapshot
synchronization 368
load balancing in DMP 42
overall 155
snapshot file systems 413
persistence
device naming option 264
persistent device name database 266
persistent device naming 266
Persistent FastResync 8586, 91, 312
physical disks
clearing locks on 633
displaying information 261
displaying information about 261, 624
installing 270
making available for hot-relocation 551
use 554
moving between disk groups 588, 597
releasing from disk groups 653
removing 280, 667
removing from disk groups 626
removing with subdisks 282283
replacing 667
replacing removed 670
spare 549
physical objects 49
ping-pong effect 43
plex attribute 353

plexes
adding to snapshots 378
changing read policies for 151
converting to snapshot 375
defined 52
failure in hot-relocation 545
maximum number of subdisks 742
moving 382
putting online 660
reattaching 660
recovering after correctable hardware failure 548
sparse 76
specifying for online relayout 610
striped 59
point-in-time copy solutions
applications 301
polling interval for DMP restore 247
ports
listing 193
PowerPath
coexistence with DMP 190
prefer read policy 151
preferred plex
read policy 151
preferred priority path attribute 231
primary fileset relation to Storage Checkpoints 317
primary path 35, 209
primary path attribute 231
priority load balancing 236
pseudo device 389
Q
queued I/Os
displaying statistics 227
quota commands 703
quotacheck 704
quotas 701
exceeding the soft limit 702
hard limit 405, 701
soft limit 701
quotas file 702
quotas.grp file 702
809
Index
R
RAID-0 59
RAID-0+1 63
RAID-1 63
RAID-1+0 64
RAID-5
hot-relocation limitations 545
logs 70, 77
parity 66
specifying number of logs 144
subdisk failure handled by hot-relocation 545
volumes 66
RAID-5 volumes
creating 144
defined 139
raw device nodes
controlling access for volume sets 457
displaying access for volume sets 457
enabling access for volume sets 456
for volume sets 455
read policies
changing 151
prefer 151
round 151
select 151
siteread 151
split 151
recovery
I/O delay 740
recovery accelerator 79
recovery option values
configuring 246
redo log configuration 80
redundancy
of data on mirrors 139
of data on RAID-5 139
redundancy levels
displaying for a device 231
specifying for a device 232
redundant-loop access 40
regionsize attribute 340, 342
reinitialization of disks 279
relayout
changing region size 612
changing speed of 612
relayout (continued)
controlling progress of 611
limitations 75
monitoring tasks for 611
online 72
pausing 611
performing online 606
resuming 611
reversing direction of 612
specifying non-default 609
specifying plexes 610
specifying task tags for 610
storage 72
transformation characteristics 76
types of transformation 607
viewing status of 611
relocation
automatic 543
limitations 545
removable Storage Checkpoints definition 323
removing devices
from VxVM control 204
removing disks 667
removing physical disks 280
reorganization
directory 176
extent 176
replacing disks 667
replay logs and sequential DRL 79
report extent fragmentation 175
reservation space 177
resilvering
databases 79
restoration of disk group configuration 654
restoration of FSS disk group configuration 654
restore policy
check_all 247
check_alternate 247
check_disabled 247
check_periodic 248
restored daemon 40
restrictions
at boot time 689
on BIOS 680
on Master Boot Record 680
on rootability 680
810
Index
restrictions (continued)
on using LILO 680
resyncfromoriginal snapback 338
resyncfromreplica snapback 338
resynchronization
I/O delay 740
of volumes 77
resynchronizing
databases 79
snapshots 315
retry option values
configuring 246
Reverse Path Name Lookup 718
root disk
defined 679
encapsulating 690
encapsulation 691
mirroring 690
supported layouts for encapsulation 682
unencapsulating 699
unsupported layouts for encapsulation 685
root volume 689
rootability 679
removing 699
restrictions 680
round read policy 151
round-robin
load balancing 236
read policy 151
S
s# 50
scandisks
vxdisk subcommand 185
secondary path 35
secondary path attribute 231
secondary path display 209
select read policy 151
sequential DRL
defined 79
maximum number of dirty regions 748
sequential I/O 292
serial split brain condition
correcting 651
in campus clusters 646
in disk groups 646
setext 181
setting
path redundancy levels 232
single active path policy 236
siteread read policy 151
slices
partitions 50
SmartMove feature 425
SmartSync 79
SmartTier 451
snap objects 88
snap volume naming 338
snapabort 330
snapback
defined 331
merging snapshot volumes 377
resyncfromoriginal 338
resyncfromreplica 338, 377
snapclear
creating independent volumes 378
snapmir snapshot type 366
snapof 416
snapped file systems 100, 327
performance 413
unmounting 327
snapread 413
snapshot file systems 100, 327
blockmap 414
creating 416
data block area 414
disabled 328
fscat 413
fuser 327
mounting 416
multiple 327
on cluster file systems 327
performance 413
read 413
super-block 414
snapshot hierarchies
creating 360
splitting 364
snapshot mirrors
adding to volumes 359
snapshots
adding mirrors to volumes 359
adding plexes to 378
and FastResync 84
811
Index
snapshots (continued)
backing up multiple volumes 356, 376
backing up volumes online using 339
cascaded 334
comparison of features 82
converting plexes to 375
creating a hierarchy of 360
creating backups using third-mirror 371
creating for volume sets 357
creating full-sized instant 349
creating independent volumes 378
creating instant 339
creating linked break-off 354
creating snapshots of 335
creating space-optimized instant 346
creating third-mirror break-off 351
creating volumes for use as full-sized instant 344
defining names for 376
displaying information about instant 365
dissociating instant 363
finding out those configured on a cache 371
full-sized instant 83, 331
hierarchy of 334
improving performance of synchronization 368
instant 314
linked break-off 333
listing for a cache 369
merging with original volumes 377
of volumes 81
on multiple volumes 338
reattaching instant 361
reattaching linked third-mirror 362
refreshing instant 361
removing 375
removing instant 364
removing linked snapshots from volumes 360
removing mirrors from volumes 360
restoring from instant 363
resynchronization on snapback 338
resynchronizing 315
resynchronizing volumes from 377
space-optimized instant 314
synchronizing instant 367
third-mirror 82
use of copy-on-write mechanism 332
snapsize 415
snapstart 330
snapvol attribute 349, 355
snapwait 352, 355

source attribute 349, 355
space-optimized instant snapshots 314
creating 346
spaceopt snapshot type 366
spanned volumes 57
spanning 57
spare disks
displaying 550
marking disks as 551
used for hot-relocation 549
sparse file 179
sparse plexes 76
specifying
redundancy levels 232
split read policy 151
standby path attribute 231
states
of link objects 333
statistics gathering 41
storage
clearing 161
ordered allocation of 145, 148
uninitialized 161
storage attributes and volume layout 146
storage cache 314
used by space-optimized instant snapshots 314
Storage Checkpoints 316
accessing 388
administration of 386
converting a data Storage Checkpoint to a nodata
Storage Checkpoint with multiple Storage
Checkpoints 393
creating 387
data Storage Checkpoints 322
definition of 385
difference between a data Storage Checkpoint
and a nodata Storage Checkpoint 391
freezing and thawing a file system 317
mounting 388
nodata Storage Checkpoints 322, 390
operation failures 399
pseudo device 389
removable Storage Checkpoints 323
removing 388
space management 399
synchronous vs. asynchronous conversion 390
types of 321
812
Index
Storage Checkpoints (continued)

unmounting 390
using the fsck command 390
writable Storage Checkpoints 388
storage processor 35
storage relayout 72
stripe columns 60
stripe units
changing size 609
defined 60
stripe-mirror-col-split-trigger-pt 143
striped plexes
defined 59
striped volumes
creating 142
defined 139
failure of 59
specifying non-default number of columns 143
specifying non-default stripe unit size 143
striped-mirror volumes
benefits of 64
creating 143
defined 140
mirroring columns 144
mirroring subdisks 144
trigger point for mirroring 143
striping 59
striping plus mirroring 63
subdisks
blocks 52
defined 52
DRL log 79
hot-relocation 78, 543, 550
hot-relocation messages 555
listing original disks after hot-relocation 557
maximum number per plex 742
METADATA 694
mirroring in striped-mirror volumes 144
moving after hot-relocation 555
RAID-5 failure of 545
specifying different offsets for unrelocation 557
unrelocating after hot-relocation 555
unrelocating to different disks 556
unrelocating using vxunreloc 556
super-block 414
SVID requirement
VxFS conformance to 110
synchronization
controlling for instant snapshots 367
improving performance of 368
synchronous I/O 292
syncing attribute 339, 367
syncpause 367
syncresume 367
syncstart 367
syncstop 367
syncwait 367
system failure recovery 29, 99
system performance
overall 155
T
tags
for tasks 602
listing for disks 643
renaming 616
setting on disks 642
setting on volumes 616
specifying for online relayout tasks 610
specifying for tasks 602
target IDs
target mirroring 148
targets
listing 193
task monitor in VxVM 602
tasks
aborting 604
changing state of 604
identifiers 602
listing 604
managing 603
modifying parameters of 604
monitoring 604
monitoring online relayout 611
pausing 604
resuming 604
specifying tags 602
specifying tags on online relayout operation 610
tags 602
temporary area used by online relayout 73
temporary directories 105
813
Index
Thaw 101
thaw 294
thin provisioning
using 425
Thin Reclamation 431
thin reclamation
fsadm 436
thin storage
using 425
third-mirror
snapshots 82
third-mirror break-off snapshots
creating 351
third-party driver (TPD) 189
throttling 41
tmplog mount option 160
TPD
displaying path information 219
support for coexistence 189
tpdmode attribute 267
trigger point in striped-mirror volumes 143
tunable I/O parameters
Volume Manager maximum I/O size 722
tunables
changing values of 731, 754
dmp_cache_open 723
dmp_daemon_count 724
dmp_delayq_interval 724
dmp_fast_recovery 724
dmp_health_time 724
dmp_log_level 725
dmp_low_impact_probe 725
dmp_lun_retry_timeout 726
dmp_monitor_fabric 726
dmp_monitor_osevent 727
dmp_monitor_ownership 727
dmp_native_support 727
dmp_path_age 727
dmp_pathswitch_blks_shift 728
dmp_probe_idle_lun 728
dmp_probe_threshold 728
dmp_restore_cycles 729
dmp_restore_interval 729
dmp_restore_state 730
dmp_scsi_timeout 730
dmp_sfg_threshold 730
dmp_stat_interval 730
FastrResync/cache object metadata cache
size 750
tunables (continued)
maximum vol_stats_enable 742
vol_checkpt_default 740
vol_default_iodelay 740
vol_fmr_logsz 85, 747
vol_max_vol 740
vol_maxio 741
vol_maxioctl 741
vol_maxparallelio 741
vol_maxspecialio 742
vol_subdisk_num 742
voldrl_max_drtregs 748
voldrl_max_seq_dirty 79, 748
voldrl_min_regionsz 748
voliomem_chunk_size 743
voliomem_maxpool_sz 743
voliot_errbuf_dflt 744
voliot_iobuf_default 744
voliot_iobuf_limit 744
voliot_iobuf_max 744
voliot_max_open 745
volpagemod_max_memsz 750
volraid_minpool_size 745
volraid_rsrtransmax 745
Tuning DMP
using templates 731
tuning VxFS 720
U
UDID flag 95
udid_mismatch flag 95
umount command 168
unencapsulating the root disk 699
uninitialized storage, clearing 161
unmount 390
a snapped file system 327
Upgrading
ISP disk group 657
use_all_paths attribute 237
use_avid
vxddladm option 264
user-specified device names 265
utility
vxtune 755, 757
V
V-5-1-2829 617
V-5-1-552 626
814
Index
V-5-1-587 633
V-5-2-3091 594
V-5-2-369 627
V-5-2-4292 594
version 0
of DCOs 89
Version 10 disk layout 760
version 20
of DCOs 8990
versioning
of DCOs 89
versions
disk group 622
displaying for disk group 622
upgrading 622
virtual disks 109
virtual objects 51
VM disks
use 554
renaming 283
vol_checkpt_default tunable 740
vol_default_iodelay tunable 740
vol_fmr_logsz tunable 85, 747
vol_max_vol tunable 740
vol_maxio tunable 741
vol_maxio tunable I/O parameter 722
vol_maxioctl tunable 741
vol_maxparallelio tunable 741
vol_maxspecialio tunable 742
vol_subdisk_num tunable 742
volbrk snapshot type 366
voldrl_max_drtregs tunable 748
voldrl_max_seq_dirty tunable 79, 748
voldrl_min_regionsz tunable 748
voliomem_chunk_size tunable 743
voliomem_maxpool_sz tunable 743
voliot_errbuf_dflt tunable 744
voliot_iobuf_default tunable 744
voliot_iobuf_limit tunable 744
voliot_iobuf_max tunable 744
voliot_max_open tunable 745

volpagemod_max_memsz tunable 750
volraid_minpool_size tunable 745
volraid_rsrtransmax tunable 745
volume resynchronization 77
volume sets
adding volumes to 453
administering 451
controlling access to raw device nodes 457
creating 452
creating instant snapshots of 357
displaying access to raw device nodes 457
enabling access to raw device nodes 456
listing details of 453
raw device nodes 455
removing volumes from 453
starting 454
stopping 454
volumes
adding mirrors 612
adding snapshot mirrors to 359
adding to volume sets 453
adding version 0 DCOs to 380
backing up 312
backing up online using snapshots 339
boot-time restrictions 689
booting root 689
changing layout online 606
changing read policies for mirrored 151
concatenated 57, 139
concatenated-mirror 65, 140
creating concatenated-mirror 142
creating for use as full-sized instant
snapshots 344
creating from snapshots 378
creating mirrored 140
creating mirrored-concatenated 141
creating mirrored-stripe 143
creating RAID-5 144
creating snapshots 374
creating striped 142
creating striped-mirror 143
defined 52
displaying information about snapshots 379
dissociating version 0 DCOs from 383
effect of growing on FastResync maps 91
excluding storage from use by vxassist 146
815
Index
volumes (continued)
flagged as dirty 77
layered 64, 70, 140
maximum number of 740
merging snapshots 377
mirrored 63, 139
mirrored-concatenated 63
mirrored-stripe 63, 140
mirroring across controllers 150
mirroring across targets 148
mirroring all 613
mirroring on disks 613
moving from VxVM disks 587
naming snap 338
performing online relayout 606
RAID-0 59
RAID-0+1 63
RAID-1 63
RAID-1+0 64
RAID-10 64
RAID-5 66, 139
reattaching plexes 660
reattaching version 0 DCOs to 383
recovering after correctable hardware failure 548
removing 662
removing from /etc/fstab 662
removing linked snapshots from 360
removing mirrors from 615
removing plexes from 615
removing snapshot mirrors from 360
removing version 0 DCOs from 383
restarting moved 601
restoring from instant snapshots 363
resynchronizing from snapshots 377
snapshots 81
spanned 57
specifying non-default number of columns 143
specifying non-default relayout 609
specifying non-default stripe unit size 143
specifying storage for version 0 DCO plexes 382
specifying use of storage to vxassist 146
stopping activity on 662
striped 59, 139
striped-mirror 64, 140
taking multiple snapshots 338
trigger point for mirroring in striped-mirror 143
types of layout 139
vx_allow_cloned_naio 723
VX_DSYNC 292
VX_FREEZE 294, 704

VX_GETCACHE 294
VX_SETCACHE 294
VX_SNAPREAD 413
VX_THAW 294
VX_UNBUFFERED 292
vxassist
adding a RAID-5 log 145
adding DCOs to volumes 381
adding mirrors to volumes 612
creating cache volumes 342
creating concatenated-mirror volumes 142
creating mirrored volumes 141
creating mirrored-concatenated volumes 141
creating mirrored-stripe volumes 143
creating RAID-5 volumes 144
creating snapshots 372
creating striped volumes 142
creating striped-mirror volumes 143
creating volumes for use as full-sized instant
snapshots 345
defaults file 117
defining layout on specified storage 146
displaying information about snapshots 379
dissociating snapshots from volumes 378
excluding storage from use 146
listing tags set on volumes 616
merging snapshots with volumes 377
mirroring across controllers 150
mirroring across targets 148, 150
moving DCO plexes 382
relaying out volumes online 606
removing mirrors 615
removing plexes 615
removing tags from volumes 616
removing volumes 663
replacing tags set on volumes 616
resynchronizing volumes from snapshots 377
setting default values 117
setting tags on volumes 616617
snapabort 330
snapback 331
snapshot 331
snapstart 330
specifying number of mirrors 141
specifying number of RAID-5 logs 144
specifying ordered allocation of storage 148
specifying plexes for online relayout 610
816
Index
vxassist (continued)
specifying storage attributes 146
specifying storage for version 0 DCO plexes 382
specifying tags for online relayout tasks 610
taking snapshots of multiple volumes 376
vxcache
listing snapshots in a cache 369
resizing caches 370
starting cache objects 343
stopping a cache 371
tuning cache autogrow 370
vxcached
tuning 369
vxconfigd
managing with vxdctl 55
monitoring configuration changes 605
vxdco
dissociating version 0 DCOs from volumes 383
reattaching version 0 DCOs to volumes 383
vxdctl
managing vxconfigd 55
setting default disk group 587
vxdctl enable
configuring new disks 185
invoking device discovery 189
vxddladm
adding foreign devices 203
changing naming scheme 264
displaying the disk-naming scheme 264
listing all devices 192
listing configured devices 195
listing configured targets 194
listing excluded disk arrays 199200
listing ports on a Host Bus Adapter 193
listing supported disk arrays 197
listing supported disks in DISKS category 199
listing supported HBAs 192
removing disks from DISKS category 190, 202
203
setting iSCSI parameters 195
used to exclude support for disk arrays 198
used to re-include support for disk arrays 198
vxdg
controlling CDS compatibility of new disk
groups 626
correcting serial split brain condition 652
vxdg (continued)
creating disk groups 625
deporting disk groups 628
destroying disk groups 653
disabling a disk group 653
displaying boot disk group 586
displaying default disk group 586
displaying disk group version 622
displaying free space in disk groups 624
displaying information about disk groups 623
forcing import of disk groups 634
importing a disk group containing cloned
disks 640641
importing cloned disks 643
importing disk groups 629
joining disk groups 600
listing disks with configuration database
copies 644
listing objects affected by move 594
listing spare disks 550
moving objects between disk groups 596
placing a configuration database on disks 644
recovering destroyed disk groups 653
removing disks from disk groups 626
renaming disk groups 644
setting base minor number 635
setting maximum number of devices 637
splitting disk groups 599
upgrading disk group version 622
vxdisk
displaying information about disks 624
displaying multi-pathing information 209
listing disks 262
listing tags on disks 643
notifying dynamic LUN expansion 257
placing a configuration database on a disk 644
scanning disk devices 185
setting tags on disks 642
updating the disk identifier 639
vxdisk scandisks
rescanning devices 186
scanning devices 186
vxdiskadd
placing disks under VxVM control 279
817
Index
vxdiskadm
Add or initialize one or more disks 271, 625
adding disks 271
changing the disk-naming scheme 263
deporting disk groups 627
Enable access to (import) a disk group 629
Encapsulate one or more disks 675
Exclude a disk from hot-relocation use 553
excluding free space on disks from hot-relocation
use 553
importing disk groups 629
initializing disks 271
List disk information 262
Make a disk available for hot-relocation use 554
making free space on disks available for
hot-relocation use 554
Mark a disk as a spare for a disk group 552
Mirror volumes on a disk 613
mirroring disks 680
mirroring root disks 693
mirroring volumes 613
Move volumes from a disk 587
moving subdisks from disks 627
moving volumes from VxVM disks 587
Remove a disk 281, 627
Remove a disk for replacement 667
Remove access to (deport) a disk group 627
removing disks from pool of hot-relocation
spares 553
Replace a failed or removed disk 670
Turn off the spare flag on a disk 553
vxdiskunsetup
removing disks from VxVM control 626, 663
vxdmpadm
changing TPD naming scheme 267
configuring an APM 250
configuring I/O throttling 244
configuring response to I/O errors 242, 246
disabling controllers in DMP 207
disabling I/O in DMP 240
displaying APM information 249
displaying DMP database information 207
displaying DMP node for a path 212, 214
displaying DMP node for an enclosure 212213
vxdmpadm (continued)
displaying I/O error recovery settings 246
displaying I/O policy 233
displaying I/O throttling settings 246
displaying information about controllers 217
displaying information about enclosures 218
displaying partition size 233
displaying paths controlled by DMP node 215
displaying status of DMP restoration thread 249
displaying TPD information 219
enabling I/O in DMP 241
gathering I/O statistics 224
listing information about array ports 219
removing an APM 250
renaming enclosures 242
setting I/O policy 235236
setting path attributes 231
setting restore polling interval 247
specifying DMP path restoration policy 247
stopping DMP restore daemon 248
vxdmpadm list
displaying DMP nodes 213
vxdump 181
vxedit
excluding free space on disks from hot-relocation
use 553
making free space on disks available for
hot-relocation use 554
removing a cache 371
removing disks from pool of hot-relocation
spares 552
removing instant snapshots 364
removing snapshots from a cache 371
removing volumes 663
renaming disks 284
vxencap
encapsulating the root disk 691
VxFS
storage allocation 155
vxfs_inotopath 718
vxfs_ninode 721
vxiod I/O kernel threads 48
vxlsino 718
vxmake
creating cache objects 342
creating plexes 612
vxmend
re-enabling plexes 660
818
Index
vxmirror
configuring VxVM default behavior 613
mirroring root disks 693
mirroring volumes 613
vxnotify
monitoring configuration changes 605
vxplex
attaching plexes to volumes 612
converting plexes to snapshots 375
reattaching plexes 660
removing mirrors 615
removing mirrors of root disk volumes 700
removing plexes 615
vxprint
displaying DCO information 382
displaying snapshots configured on a cache 371
verifying if volumes are prepared for instant
snapshots 340
viewing base minor number 635
vxrecover
recovering plexes 548
vxrelayout
resuming online relayout 611
reversing direction of online relayout 612
viewing status of online relayout 611
vxrelocd
hot-relocation daemon 544
modifying behavior of 558
notifying users other than root 559
operation of 545
preventing from running 559
reducing performance impact of recovery 559
vxrestore 181
vxsnap
adding snapshot mirrors to volumes 359
administering instant snapshots 332
backing up multiple volumes 356
controlling instant snapshot synchronization 367
creating a cascaded snapshot hierarchy 360
creating full-sized instant snapshots 349, 355
creating linked break-off snapshot volumes 355
creating space-optimized instant snapshots 347
displaying information about instant
snapshots 365
dissociating instant snapshots 363
preparing volumes for instant snapshots 340
reattaching instant snapshots 361
vxsnap (continued)
reattaching linked third-mirror snapshots 362
refreshing instant snapshots 361
removing a snapshot mirror from a volume 360
restore 332
restoring volumes 363
splitting snapshot hierarchies 364
vxsplitlines
diagnosing serial split brain condition 651
vxstat
determining which disks have failed 548
vxtask
aborting tasks 605
listing tasks 604
monitoring online relayout 611
monitoring tasks 605
pausing online relayout 611
resuming online relayout 611
resuming tasks 605
vxtune
setting volpagemod_max_memsz 750
vxtune utility 755, 757
vxunreloc
listing original disks of hot-relocated subdisks 557
moving subdisks after hot-relocation 556
restarting after errors 558
specifying different offsets for unrelocated
subdisks 557
unrelocating subdisks after hot-relocation 556
unrelocating subdisks to different disks 556
vxunroot
removing rootability 700
unencapsulating the root disk 700
VxVM
configuration daemon 55
configuring to create mirrored volumes 613
dependency on operating system 48
disk discovery 187
granularity of memory allocation by 743
maximum number of subdisks per plex 742
maximum number of volumes 740
maximum size of memory pool 743
minimum size of memory pool 745
objects in 51
removing disks from 626
removing disks from control of 663
rootability 679
task monitor 602
types of volume layout 139
819
Index
VxVM (continued)
upgrading 622
upgrading disk group version 622
VxVM disks
defined 52
mirroring volumes on 613
vxvol
setting read policy 152
stopping volumes 663
vxvset
adding volumes to volume sets 453
controlling access to raw device nodes 457
creating volume sets 452
creating volume sets with raw device access 456
listing details of volume sets 453
removing volumes from volume sets 453
starting volume sets 454
stopping volume sets 454
W
warning messages
Specified region-size is larger than the limit on
the system 340
writable Storage Checkpoints 388
write size 179
820

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Symantec Storage

Symantec Storage Foundation 6.1 Administrator's

Telephone and/or Web-based support that provides rapid response and

Upgrade assurance that delivers software upgrades

Global support purchased on a regional business hours or 24 hours a day, 7

Premium service offerings that include Account Management Services

Contacting Technical Support

Product release level

Available memory, disk space, and NIC information

Version and patch level

Router, gateway, and IP address information

Error messages and log files

Troubleshooting that was performed before contacting Symantec

Recent software configuration changes and network changes

Licensing and registration

Questions regarding product licensing or serialization

Product registration updates, such as address or name changes

General product information (features, language availability, local dealers)

Latest information about product updates and upgrades

Information about upgrade assurance and support contracts

Information about the Symantec Buying Programs

Advice about Symantec's technical support options

Nontechnical presales questions

Issues that are related to CD-ROMs or manuals

Support agreement resources

Europe, Middle-East, and Africa

North America and Latin America

About Symantec Connect

Technical Support ............................................................................................... 4

Introducing Storage Foundation ........................ 25

Overview of Storage Foundation ...................................... 26

How Symantec Dynamic Multi-Pathing works .............. 34

How Veritas Volume Manager works .............................. 47

Multiple paths to disk arrays .....................................................

How Veritas File System works ........................................ 96

Delayed allocation for extending writes ......................................

Provisioning storage ................................................ 111

Provisioning new storage ................................................. 112

Advanced allocation methods for configuring

Creating and mounting VxFS file systems ................... 153

log mount option ...................................................................

Extent attributes ................................................................ 177

Administering multi-pathing with

Administering Dynamic Multi-Pathing ......................... 185

How to administer the Device Discovery Layer ............................

Dynamic Reconfiguration of devices

About online Dynamic Reconfiguration ...........................................

Managing devices .............................................................. 261

Event monitoring ............................................................... 285

Optimizing I/O performance ............................... 289

Veritas File System I/O ..................................................... 290

Veritas Volume Manager I/O ........................................... 297

Using Point-in-time copies ................................... 299

Understanding point-in-time copy methods ............... 300

Concurrent I/O to FileSnaps ....................................................

Administering volume snapshots .................................. 329

Growing and shrinking a cache ................................................

Administering Storage Checkpoints .............................. 385

Administering FileSnaps .................................................. 406

Administering snapshot file systems ............................ 412

Optimizing storage with Storage

Understanding storage optimization solutions in

Migrating data from thick storage to thin